kingeider-189-365078 Reviews

Will Trent (2023– )

acting vs stories

[6/10 · 30 March 2023]

Have watched 3 of these so far. It's pretty good. Enjoying some of the acting: the lead, Rodrigues, his reluctant assistant, Iantha Richardson and their boss Sonjah Sohn (the Wire) are all quite good and have a good dynamic between them. Not so sold on the E Christiansen/Jake McLaughlin characters, they are pretty formulaic and the push pull relationship between Rodrigues and Christiansen is pretty standard stuff for USA cop shows, too. So, the acting seems to be pretty good, but the series, although with the quirky hooks of the story with the dog, the vandalized Porche Targa and the like is sort of fun, the stories so far are not so good. How many times do we have to have the blonde teen held captive by a sex maniac? I mean this is so stale and standard, it's like generic (or geriatric) tevee. Let's get some good acting, funny characters and original plots, maybe?

Glass Onion (2022)

Horrible start, why go on?

[1/10 · 27 December 2022]

Who did this? Who could possibly be responsible for this steamer? One of the most puerile, hammy and overwrought beginnings in Hollywood history. The characters are so poorly written, it seems as if the proverbial 1000 monkeys with typewriters were involved , or was that an entire school of 13 year old boys? I only lasted 15 minutes in, it's really that bad. Craig in the tub, why? The awful accent. Goldie Hawns kid, sure let's add jokes about anti Semitism for her. And the biker muscle man , his fatuous "boob having " girlfriend and his small,but oh-so obtrusive Jewish mother, was Nick Fuentes involved in this, too? Sure, and let's have the biker muscle man arrive waving a pistol around, and Hawns spawn arrive in a pedicab with a large entourage of sycophants. We watched about 15 minutes of this, more than enough. With all the great entertainment out there, why waste time on this? ZERO stars.

The Peripheral (2022)

squicky and formulaic writing ruin the concept

[3/10 · 20 November 2022]

Starts off with an interesting concept, and just an excellent artistic title sequence (I like artistry like this, and these employ creative graphic designers, so it's all good, man).

However, there appears to be an emphasis on 2 things that ruin the series for me and mine. First is a torture emphasis. No real need for this, IMO, The show could do these things differently and it would not have made it harder to follow or thematically wrong. Abu Ghraib and Auschwitz stuff are not what entertainment is all about. The second is the sheer amount of AR15 action. Hollywood sez "When in doubt, add AR15's!" I don't think I'm alone when I see these things, I think of Stoneman-Douglas, Sandy Hook, Las Vegas, Pulse Nightclub, the list goes on and on. Apparently, "that's entertainment!"

Soooooo, if ya likin the squicky Mengele torture and the rootin', tootin' shootin', this may be YOUR SHOW. Sure as hell isn't mine.

The Admiral: Roaring Currents (2014)

super Josean action movie!

[10/10 · 2 November 2022]

This is just a super epic story. The Admiral is quite a guy, and the villians are just so awful. Classic good vs evil stuff. Costumes are just fantastic, especially the Japanese ones, but the Josean ones don't disappoint, either. Cinematography and sound are super, too, and the CGI is pretty good for 2014 (I watched it in November 2022, so it's held up for quite a few years.)

I will need to issue a "trigger warning" though, because there are some examples of extreme violence in this, so it's not suitable for kids or more sensative viewers.

It's also really cool to see some of the stars of Korean cinema and tv in these earlier roles, Kim Tae-Hoon (lately seen in. Kingdom), Choi Deok-moon (plays great in the fantastic series Vincenzo) and a bunch of others. Korean movies and tv are always on my to watch list, and this is a real good example why.

The Roundup (2022)

nice short right hands

[8/10 · 11 August 2022]

As a former boxer, I can see the fakery in most films. Not in this one, the nice short right hands to the body that the hero lands are just crunchers. Great action!!

The Old Man (2022– )

meh, and hard to believe any of it

[2/10 · 4 August 2022]

The old "James Bond" spies are incredibly wealthy and hob nob with oligarchs and captains of industry on private islands, while being jetted around on Gulfstreams and cigarette boats. Sure, for a more realistic portrayal, check out Slow Horses, a much more realistic and better written and acted series. Real spies want to fit in, a lot of real ones are non descript overweight, plain people, shabby clothes, the kind who your eyes do not land on...What is up with Bridges "bridges", anyway? He has all the mannerisms of a person who needs a denture refit, the open mouth, continuous licking of his lips and mumbled delivery..along with the greasy hair and unkempt beard, yet somehow he is a "chick magnet" of immediate interest by the hilariously bow legged Amy Brenneman.. The continuous expository speech by each character with them explaining their childhhoods and dreams, and the ridiculous dream sequence with the broken doll in the sand dune basement. Who writes this ? Ali Shawkut absolutely unconvincing in her role, as was Joel Grey. John Lithgow is the only one with any chops whatsoever, and the unbelievable script and story line gives him little to work with. Another thing, the Afghan Soviet parts so nonsensical and ahistorical, The young Jeff B character really should pay royalties to Gary Trudeau of Doonesbury fame for the "Red Rascal" ("Sorkh Razil") rip off. Red Rascal is a parody in Doonesbury, sadly The Old Man takes this BS seriously.

Król (2020– )

excellent

[8/10 · 4 August 2022]

I agree with most of the reviewers here. This is a very well done series, the year is 1937, Poland, you gotta know what's coming, and the folks there are largely clueless of this danger, being involved in politcal and criminal intrigues of their own. Szapiro, Buddy, Radziwilek and his side kick Eduardo are all exellent characters. What a dynamic of opposing forces. I thought the interiors, scenery and costumes were good, too. If you are a fan of Sopranos, Umbre and Gommorah, this is another good one for you.

Men (2022)

genuinely spooky in a new way

[8/10 · 22 July 2022]

There's a lot in this that is original and verrry creepy. Hard to give a good review without spoilers, as there is so much that is particular (and peculiar) to this movie. I think some reallu good acting and atmospherics and a really dynamite horror soundtrack (good music in films is in such short supply). To me it is clearly a descent into madness by the main character. Gives a new meaning to the universality of poorly raised men, too. Although a lot of them are surficially different, they appear interchageable in function and behavior. It's a little more bloody and gory than I really like, but the concepts to me are really solid and, if one can take more than a bit of the "body horror" and can deal with a story that is unusual, to say the least, I think it's got its rewards.

Us (II) (2019)

Acting lessons?

[3/10 · 19 July 2022]

Wow, the main male character needs acting lessons. His jokey "Cosby" imitation is hard to take, and his bad acting and dialog delivery is so unbelievable it beggars imagination. Lupita Nyonga tries, but the wooden acting by Gabe just kind of takes over every scene.

Mad God (2021)

icky cruelty driven animation

[3/10 · 6 July 2022]

Watched about 10 minutes of it, it's got the strangeness, ugliness and cruelty factor amped up. If that's your thing, it's probably a 10, but it's certainly not my thing. YMMV.

YG Future Strategy Office (2018)

irreverent Korean comedy

[10/10 · 18 March 2022]

This is a fun show, very irreverent as compared to many other Korean shows. As a resident of the US and not really familiar with K kulture, it took me a couple episodes to get into it, but it just kept getting better and better. Takes a lot of the corporate, heirarchical sexist K tropes and tosses them out the window.

Nyrkki (2019– )

pretty good show

[8/10 · 8 November 2021]

I liked this, I agree with the reviewer who said it could be confusing, it might help to watch the two seasons closer together in time than I did, I waited about a year between the two and struggled to keep up somewhat. It is very, very well acted, there is little to complain about there, EXCEPT perhaps for the American CIA (OSS?) agent whose cover is a musician. I found him a little unbelievable. But the story is pretty good, there are double and triple crosses and allegiances switched back and forth, at least apparently.....I'll leave it to you to try to pry the connections apart, might take a wrecking bar to do it, though.... There are some really stunning performances from female actors in this, the roles of Helena, Aune and the "Finn fatale" Tabe are really well done. Remind me not to cross Finnish women!!

Katla (2021)

Calling Bjork!!

[2/10 · 9 August 2021]

Seemingly an Icelandic version of the very much better French series "The Returned". Absolutely stunning cinematography and decent to good acting is pretty well entirely ruined by SLOOOOW motion writing. Almost nothing seems to happen, and the characters are boring and tame. And, one other reason I've rated it so low....it has an awful lot of unneccessary animal death in it and/or descriptions of animal torture. I know animals die, and that the ones they show getting killed or dying are not endangered (parrots, crows) or are generally used by people as food,(cows, horses and deer), but I really don't find it entertaining to see real dead animals being used in a story when it really doesn't need to be done, or could be done with fakes and or CGI. So, Kormakur and Kjartansson could take some lessons from Bjork in how to make something strange that doesn't bog down horribly or unnessarily kill a bunch of animals to make it.

Helved (2019– )

First review, it's interesting!

[9/10 · 1 August 2021]

Well, there are a bunch of number reviews for this, and it looks like people didn't like it....well, I thought it was an interesting concept for a comedy and it wasn't bad at all. I gave it a 9 to compensate for some of the apparent 2's or 4's. So, there are no real likable characters in this, and it is a bit hard to understand. But, the dynamics between the characters, their quirky behaviors and the interesting premise made it an enjoyable show for me. It also has unusual times, a couple episodes are 16 minutes or so, one is about 12 minutes, so, at least you wouldn't have to invest a gigantic amount of time to give it a go. As a Scandinavian, I appreciate the characters and find them and the story entertaining and pretty funny! Hopefully, you might as well.

SurrealEstate (2021– )

remake of Korean series

[2/10 · 17 July 2021]

If you want a better version of this, try the original

Sell Your Haunted House

Korean series, it's pretty good!!

Royal Secret Agent (2020–2021)

fun show, great costumes!

[9/10 · 9 February 2021]

A fun Joseon era show. Great characters, evil villains, plucky women, sincere and good hearted heroes, corrupt officials, a little comedy and the typical Korean push-pull romance. Perils of Pauline, "How will they get out of this trap?" Really enjoyable. Look forward to another season, I hope.

The Expanse (2015–2022)

Latest season very good and very bad

[2/10 · 14 January 2021]

Without spoilers, the story arcs with the UN and the Rocinante are just excellent. Really great writing for this season here. However, the family dynamics for Naomi, Marcos and son are boring, just about like some mid 60's soap opera. How many times do we get to hear their sad tales? Episode 7 especially. Almost all of it is on that line....."it's complicated", oh, yeah, I suppose...but is it entertaining? I don't think so.

Penny Dreadful: City of Angels (2020)

mixed LA time frames

[3/10 · 8 June 2020]

Too bad, I liked Natalie Dormer in GOT & as Anne Boleyn. But the writing on this is pretty terrible, Almost all of the writing in this are mixing modern with 40's behaviors. Old abuelas don't use the word "F++K" and would box the ears off of a child who did so, even now. The nightclub scenes are incorrect to period, too. Seems to me that the writers didn't try to make this culturally correct even though it is supposedly based on Hispanic life in LA. They should have consulted with some folks who lived this life, let alone engineers and social scientist who could have advised about the realities of the urban renewal/freeway/Dodger Stadium construction that removed neighborhoods. Hell, they should have hired Mike Davis to tell them the real history of LA along with some zoot suit-ers sons who could have made this more realistic and a less jarring sack of mixed uppedness

Tijuana (2019)

really good show

[9/10 · 2 May 2019]

Compares with the Wire. Journalists in the search for answers amidst crooked politicians, government, unions and police. really good acting and interesting variable story line. A couple of over the top characters, but the actions are largely very believable and give a good understanding of modern MX. I really like a couple of things about it a LOT, one is that there is very little makeup and the people are not overly pretty in a Hollywood/US TV sense, and also there are a lot of good portrayals of women, it could hardly be seen as a macho production.

They Shall Not Grow Old (II) (2018)

better done previously

[2/10 · 26 December 2018]

Colorized version, it's vignettes of the experiences of Englishmen on the trench line of WW1. As vignettes, it has no real single POV, nor an overarching theme. It's very tragic. Better done documentary was the 3 part series done called American Experience: the Great War, which provides the essential overview, background, history and follow up to the entire period. Among one of the biggest absences is the presence of any other than white Englishmen. The English "colonies" provided a lot of troops, and there is also little mention of any of the other protagonists, French, American, little is shown about the Germans until the very end. It is also overly long. As a drama, the Cieux de 14 series (French) is a lot better at illustrating the overall feeling of the war for the common troops. So, it's not all that good. Your mileage may vary.

Life (2018)

interesting story lines and characters

[8/10 · 19 September 2018]

There are a number of interesting story lines and characters in this series. Some get close to a soap opera-ish feel, but, all in all, well done. Good acting and cinematography and a pretty interesting soundtrack, too, When this series works, which is most of the time, it really works well, Also a good window into modern Korea. Recommended for people who like dramas.

Mr. Robot (2015–2019)

not great and getting much worse

[2/10 · 2 November 2017]

Show had some problems from the first series, but they've gotten worse as it's progressed. Now, in series 3, it seems to be only short vignettes featuring characters from the current series and from past series doing inane things. I suppose the next one we'll see is the fake dad character goes to McDonalds, but the fry cook is one of the old hackers from series 1, then the fry cook gets his hand CAUGHT IN THE FRYER!!, and then the FBI agents arrive, there is a shoot out and then they are ALL PLAYING SKEE BALL TOGETHER on the pier.

It's that disjointed. I tried to watch a few episodes of S3, but bailed.

It's awful

The Unbelievers (2013)

interesting subject, poor execution

[6/10 · 31 January 2017]

The subject matter is quite interesting and there are some very good statements from people in the documentary. Learned something about the issues in an entertaining way. Some really dynamite quotes. Learned that Cameron Diaz is a freethinker, so I actually have more respect for her as an individual, although I still think she's not much of an actor.

Now the bad stuff. It's a very "jerky" production with lots of jump cuts, fast forwards and a lot of filler of cityscapes, etc. But the worst part of it for me was the sound quality. For some reason, almost throughout the film there was a music accompaniment that was very intrusive. For instance a recording of REM's "Orange Crush" playing for quite a while, with the volume going up and down. This was when one of the subjects was speaking, and when his volume went up, so did REM's. I think they used some type of "normalization" software that adjusted the music volume to the general volume of the speaker. Very distracting, and really poor soundperson work.

BTW, there are some (thankfully brief) Woody Allen interviews (along with many others) at the end and the beginning. But you really shouldn't be listing him as one of the actors or featured persons in your description, any more than you should list Cameron Diaz, Penn Gillette or Stephen Hawking. They all have some statements in here, but Woodys is no more a featured item than the others.

Happy Valley (2014–2023)

good, but violent

[8/10 · 18 December 2016]

very well done dramatic series. Acting is really superb as is the cinematography. Main character actor, Sarah Lancashire, can express a huge amount of acting just with facial features. Truly admirable. It is, however, very violent, with beatings, knifings, rape. First season reminds me of Fargo(the movie) quite a bit, but lacks the humor that the Coens brought to that. So, all in all, very, very well done, but you do need either a quick hand on the fast forward or a strong stomach to take some of the scenes. A question arises about these police dramas....why can't there be more ones on political corruption and simple burglary rings and that? I think that this type of plot would have ample possibilities to develop interesting characters and dramatic scenes/dialog without some of the awfulness of what transpires in this series. Just sayin....

The Measure of a Man (2015)

excellent true to life

[8/10 · 25 November 2016]

people seem to be missing the point on this. This is life how it happens. There is no great drama in a lot of our lives, just overcoming difficulties or succumbing to them. The protagonist here shows an incredible amount of grace when faced with many difficult situations. He's tried, over and over again, to do what is asked of him, most of it is reasonable, but it seldom actually helps his situation. It is very, very well acted and well photographed. I think it is like a modern Agnes Varda. You have to educate yourself and/or face a few situations like these shown to appreciate a film like this. I think folks are missing the point. Is the life portrayed common? Yes. Does the man try to rise above the things that have happened to him? Yes. Does he do so with a true sense of what is important and what isn't? Yes. Does he do so with a huge amount of grace? Yes, I think so, and that what impressed me most. It really does show what the measure of a man should be.