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stalhusseini
Reviews
Two and a Half Men (2003)
Overstayed it's welcome
I have to admit I never really liked the show on my first couple of tries but after a while it becomes really addictive.
With Charlie Sheen:
The show is fun. The mix of Charlie and Alan is really balanced. They have fun and along with Jake - who plays the dimwitted son very well - there's always something new and fun to look forward to. The evolution of Charlie is also interesting. Going from being a male who*e to looking for something more deep and meaningful is actually quite entertaining. His mom is also an excellent dynamic to the show. All in all it's good fun. I give this part of the show a 9.
Post Charlie Sheen:
What a mess. It difficult to watch sometimes and has the remnants of a show that's just tanking while executives scramble to bring in the paramedics to try squeeze out another episode.
Firstly Alan's personality is abysmal. His care free attitude and plain stupidness bares no resemblance to the uptight douchebag that made us laugh in the first 9 seasons. The oblivion between what's funny and what's not is so unbareably cringy and so out of reach you'd need to look through a telescope just to find the line.
Lyndsey and her incomprehensible personality is as close to bi-polar as possible. He burns her house down she still loves him, she's cheating on him breaks up with him to date someone else and then cheats on that guy with Alan. A simple plot of her character falling off the cliff would have been funnier.
Then there's the addition of Charlie's daughter that to me was just the tipping point. Trying to recreate Charlie Sheen in female form to cater to the demographics is as bad as taking your pet snail to France. Just don't do it.
Finally Ashton Kutcher. To me he doesn't even make his stamp on the show. He does that whole teenage cute guy act which might have worked on the 70s show but just really makes you want to punch his face out in this.
All in all I'd give the show a 4 for seasons 9 to 12.
The Big Lebowski (1998)
The essence of a simple story told well
Simplicity: There's nothing ground breaking in the story. In actuality it's really quite simple. The real enjoyment in this movie is how well the story is told.
Characters: Everything down to the eccentricity of the characters (and the script) is what keeps you engaged at all times. It's not if Bonnie was kidnapped, who kidnapped her and who has the money. It's actually more about each character and the interactions drawn from the variance of each of their personalities that light up the movie. From Jeff Lebowski and his facade of wealth and collectiveness, Maude and her band of odd friends, Walter and his flash-back Nam infused angry interactions, the nihilists and their strange ferret intimidation techniques to Donny and his pitied like-ability.
Unpredictability: You can never really tell what's going to happen from one scene to the next, it's far from predictable. The story takes a series of turns with the viewer never really guessing what or who is going to pop up next - that for me, is probably what differentiates the exceptional directors from the good.
Script: It's those little touches such as how The Dude recites what he hears and picks up around him and uses it in latter interactions with the other characters; that level of detail is what separates it from other movies. The conversations are fun and the dialogue among characters interesting.
Peaky Blinders (2013)
It gets boring and goes nowhere
Don't get me wrong, the initial appeal is fantastic. A bunch of gangsters post world war causing havoc and standing up against the 'man' - sounds great. Unfortunately for all the acting, accents and booze is a story that has no direction. It feels the show is built on the merits of a good bunch of actors - most notoriously Tom Hardy - but has a failed story or even evolution of the characters. The show becomes monotonous and the incidents and the characters predictable. Each season has a focal point but in essence it's all the same.