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Amadeus01
Reviews
The Equalizer 3 (2023)
Very, very bad
Like everyone else, I watched the first two installments of the franchise so I thought, for completeness, I'll watch the third one.
The storyline is ridiculous, the Italian overacting is farcical and, sadly, Denzel is 70 this year, and he does not look younger. He can barely walk, the plot which required him to walk with a cane was probably on purpose.
I am sure I will get dunked on by a lot of Denzel fans, Denzel was great in several movies (Philadelphia, Training Day, Crimson Tide) but he was already too old in Equalizer 1. This one is some 10 years later and it's painful to watch. I mean I want to give him a coffee and a cake and a blanket, and not see him implausibly eviscerate a gang of strong looking young men in their twenties.
There is a lot more to complain about here but I just leave it here. Good luck to Denzel and his health. Let's get some non-geriatric action movies please?
The White Lotus: Ciao (2022)
Brilliant start to a new season
The series gets off to a rocking start, introducing nearly all new characters (apart from Jennifer Coolidge and her now husband Jon Gries). The tension is palpable. I felt genuinely uncomfortable watching the first episode. The undercurrent of anger, pettiness, foreshadowing, and idiocy. Jennifer Coolidge is as ridiculous as in Series 1, or perhaps more so. Apparently oblivious to her husbands dislike of her, he appears to really despise her.
The setting in Italy is beautiful and the introduction of local language into the dialogues works very well. The Italian character seem brilliant and very well cast. As are the rest. I am very much looking forward to it and I hope that the ending will be better than season 1.
Starstruck (2021)
Absolute garbage
Very very bad. Absolutely not credible female lead, with a half-witted story, super boring dialogue and no redeeming qualities whatsoever. Completely, completely pointless show. How did this get made, AND, recomissioned, is beyond me..
Salyut-7 (2017)
Borefest
Misleading reviews. This was a total borefest. I had to stop watching half way through. You just couldn't care about any of the characters here, the tension is all wrong, the direction is wrong and casting is a joke. Don't waste your time.
Gomorrah (2014)
8/10 based on series 1 - 4, series 5 is a 5/10
Initially excellent, series quality degrading as we progress, and unfortunately series 5 just slid into ridiculousness.
Giant plot holes, massive flaws of logic, improbable character developments, just weak.
In no particular order:
- Ciro is alive??? Yes, yes he is.
- And has established himself as an important player in Riga?? Speaks Russian, and Estonian? Yeah, right.
- Gennaro instead of taking his miraculously resurrected friend Ciro into his arms and keep him by his side, he condemns him to a life sentence in Gulag, why?
- Ciro escapes from gulag manned by a dozen men - sure...
- Finds locals who are happy to risk their lives for a complete stranger and stand up to the biggest local mafia boss - yep, you got it
- After escaping alive and witha bag of money, comes back to Naples to restart his gang. Yep - cause that's what you do when you've just been reborn.
- Gennaro is rebuilding. He has to resort to stealing a shipment of cocaine. Why? In series (1?) he did an internship in latin america nd established deep contacts, why doesn't he call on those?
- stealing the shipment, easiest job in the world. There is no protection, no security, just two guys in a van. Anyone can do it.
- Levantes just give their sister to a low ranking street guy Monk, and she will listen. Totally realistic
- Levantes are at war but they don't have any security at their compound. Just a couple of guys at the gate with a couple of pistols. 3 Genarro guys can wipe out the whole clan
- All important conversations in Naples happen with groups of men standing around arranged symmetrically in derilict buildings and talking very slowly, dramatically and in short cryptic sentences
- I could go on with this list, and the ending is completely ridiculous.
Well - I liked it at the beginning and I was happy I can watch some quality non-English speaking stuff. I would still recommend it, but Season 5 is just a jolly joke.
The Gilded Age (2022)
Beautifully shot, but ultimately pointless
This review is based on the pilot episode.
The camera work is great, as are the props, sets, costumes and editing.
I was not at all convinced by casting. Louisa Jacobson (lead female), Morgan Spector (railway tycoon with the palace), Carrie Coon (his socially ambitious wife) and Cynthia Nixon (one of the aunts) felt completely unconvincing to me. They were not helped by improbable dialogues, cliches and lazy writing ("when you make an omelette, you have to break a few eggs").
Denee Bendon (ambitious young black lady) and Christine Baranski (the matriarch aunt), seemed okay in their roles.
I found it difficult to care about any of the characters. I will try one more episode, but I think it is unlikely that I will continue watching. Created by Fellowes (Downton Abbey, which I haven't watched), it feels like a rushed and ultimately pointless version set in the new world, basically a "Gilded Age" porn.
If you want to get your fix of the upper class old time New York, just rewatch The Age of Innocence (1993), which has everything that this series doesn't, perfect casting, acting, costumes, dialogues, story, tension, love, passion, and is a masterpiece. That film is art, this series is a wannabe Downton cousin, but feels like a "watch-this-because-there-is-nothing-else-on-TV" fodder.
The White Lotus (2021)
Very watchable show but comes apart in last episode
What was excellent: acting - across the board, cinematography, soundtrack, writing (mostly and up to ep. 6).
Shows comes apart in final episode and the characters don't behave the way you expect them to (where writers took them up until then).
I will list my view of final episode storyline errors/ holes in character motivations and how I would have written it / with a bit of side comments in places perhaps.
How does the obnoxious Shane Patton get away with murder/manslaughter? Even a person of privilege would not be able to just walk away from this? It's never explained how? Surely he would at least be detained until some hearing and bail? IMO the biggest hole in the storyline here.
Armond's revenge was inadequate. I would write him to do something else. Perhaps punch Shane in the face somehow, or treat him to a nice dose of laxatives, or food poisoning, or something fun and clever. Not the turd. That was kind of funny but not sufficienly harmful and correlated to his rage towards Shane.
Rachel wouldn't have come back. Her development was the most interesting and moving from the whole cast. Even the unsuccessful session with Belina wouldn't have made her retreat and come back with the tail between her legs. She had a real realisation, superbly acted. The tears, the face the shaking. It was completely believable. I was there with her. She absolutely would not have come back to him. She realised she did not belong to that world.
There could have been a possible plot twist where Shane goes to prison, and Rachel has a prenup trigger and she comes out as a "winner" of the show. That would make some sense. But not the way it happened.
Belinda walking out of the conversation with Rachel just doesn't make sense. It's completely out of character. Even though she was disappointed by her goodbye with Tanya, she would at least explain to Rachel she is not in the right place to advise her and reschedule or something. Seems like writers were just rushed here. This interaction is completely wrong (on Belinda's part).
Greg's character should have dropped dead from his chronic cough. Or at least just dump Tanya. The love-in just felt wrong. The outcome of that would have unsettled Tanya and her ensuing continuing erractic behaviour would have been more in line with her character.
Sydney and Paula were perfectly pitched. Perfection. I would have ended Paula differently. Sydney should have snitched and ended Paula's future. That way the metaphore would have worked across the board. The rich white privilege wins, the POC characters suffer.
I have other minor points, but this IMO is why the finale doesn't work. It's all wrong. Buildup of episodes up to 6 is 8.5 IMO. But the final ep. Drags the whole show to 7. I would still recommend watching it but it could have been near perfect.
A Black Lady Sketch Show (2019)
Hi scores from fanboys - ignore
This is unfunny garbage. Predictable, forced, and without any element of surprise. I gave it an open minded try, seeing the 7.2 rating but its not comparable. The weakest Curb Episode is 7.5. This doesn't approach that even remotely.
Ava (2020)
Ignore the rating and the poor reviews
Whilst not among the greatest films ever and having a few plot holes, this is a solid assassin thriller with excellent acting, decent fight sequences and beautiful camera work. All key characters are solid and look great in their roles. Yes as many pointed out the introduction of Michael takes the story off piste a bit, and I agree that Geena Davis is s**t in this, but on the action side solid and enjoyable.
Could be a higher rating if they took more care with regards to leaving forensic evidence behind, and explain how she got out of places - eg Saudi.
Slovania (2021)
Opportunity missed
The trailers looked great so whilst I came to it open minded, I had reasonably high expectations to be entertained or at least teased to continue watching. After watching the first episode, I regret to admit that I was neither. I didn't expect it to be like GoT or Vikings, which seems to have been a common complaint by some of the viewers (I liked neither - stopped watching GoT after S1E4 and couldn't even finish the first ep of Vikings - I was just bored). What it could have been? I don't really mind. Just tell a decent story and create a drama that holds interest. I was bored throughout, and I was forcing myself to finish watching it to give it a chance. In today's environment with severe competition by international channels, Netflix, HBO etc, a new series needs to hit the ground running. There needs to be a twist, a hook or something why viewers want to watch. Breaking Bad starts with Walt waving a gun in the New Mexico desert in his underpants, a teaser of things to come, House of Cards with Kevin Spacey killing a dog in front of his house making a philosophical point and showing his character. Gomorrah has a couple of gangsters burning down an enemy boss' apartment. Etc etc etc. For me there was nothing alike here. The end of episode one does have a development but it is so obvious before the scene what will happen and is delivered in such a lukewarm fashion (and censored) that I just couldn't really care or get excited by it.
Firstly, it is clear that the direction, camera and actors tried. The production value is high, money was spent, visuals are beautiful and acting is not bad either. Having a TV seris about Slavs is desirable. There is a big gap in the market of all the Vikings, Germans, Romans et al. The problem is the script. The intro dialogue between the herbalist girl and one of the young protagonists is naive and contrived. Like every Slovak fairytale, there is an unpleasant stepmother who will try to marry off the protagonist girl to some inappropriate suitor. Cliches abound. Since it needs to appeal to the broadest spectrum of the miniscule Slovak viewing market, all the controversial parts are censored (sex and violenc). The sex scene didn't show anything and was contrived, embarrasing and absolutely not sexy. I am personally not a fan of sex scenes unless they are absolutely necessary for the type of the film or for the story, but here whilst there was logic to it there was no credibility to it. The violent scenes were also censored. For me episode one just doesn't know what this series actually wants to be. I am open to anything. Just give us a good story, tension and drama. So far they are absent.
Ramy (2019)
Nice idea and some funny moments
But didnt hold my interest. Abandoned at S1 E4.
I really wanted to watch this to get some (albeit superficial) insights into modern US muslim life. Main character is very likeable and funny, but the stories get tired quick. His romantic escapades seem a bit unrealistic and weird, his tutoring friends seem silly and superficial, the message is lost to me really.
Parents are lovely, so is his sister. Personally I didn't care for the disabled friend, I wasn't sure what he added to the story.
Sad because I wanted to watch it.
Raised by Wolves (2020)
It's not a smart sci-fi. It's a high school project with big budget.
Warning spoilers episodes 1-3.
After seeing the ratings and positive reviews, I've decided to give this show a look and I'm half-way through episode 3. I disagree with the multitude of positive comments about this show. There are major problems with the plot and logic, nothing surprising from Ridley Scott since Prometheus. The premise of the show is good, the likelihood of protagonists behaviour and general occurrences is not.
Atheists send lightweight arc with frozen embryos and 2 androids to raise them. Lightweight so as to arrive on the new planet before the opposing religious civilisation. The first scene is already problematic. The landing is almost a crash and the craft is left balancing on the edge of a pit and of course one protagonist saves another in the last second from falling in. This advanced civilisation doesn't use advanced AI and planet surveys to have a normal landing to increase the probability of survival of the civilisation. Also they don't bring any advanced machines, computers, weapons, medicine, clothes, or any other life support systems. Even for a light craft that is absolutely not credible. This is the major issue of the show. Credibility of the plot. Sci-fi or not, still you expect that it would be made believable as what would happen in such a situation. 5 of the 6 embryos that "hatched" die - again - no medicine brought and no life supporting systems. Androids behaving emotionally and a small 12 year old boy has trust issues with the androids although he has never met anyone else. The settlement is in a cold zone where there is limited food growth opportunity and where one can freeze at night especially since they don't have any advanced survival clothes - like you might have today when you undertake a winter mountain expedition. There is a warm tropical zone where presumably these issues would be mitigated but in 12 years on the planed they haven't moved there despite 5 of their 6 children dying.
Dialogue is very patchy and again, not credible. Acting is good as well as casting. I would give it a 6 out of 10. If you're out of stuff to watch, it's okay, but Breaking Bad it ain't.