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La legge di Lidia Poët (2023)
Never meant to be about the real Lydia Poet
The series wanted to create a era-based detective thriller like the Australian Miss Fisher and recent Enola Holmes. They picked a historical character Lydia Poet and built stories around the character. Lydia of Netflix is ofcourse glamourous, does all impossibly bold things and is extremely woke. Its ok if it was about any person of that era like Miss Fisher but they chose to use the name of a legend which is very disappointing.
The sets,scenery, costumes all are very well made. The lead actress is quite good. But the stories are not too thrilling.
The male characters are all one-dimensional and disappointing. Enrico her brother is shown as a simpleton who never seems to see beyond the obvious, begs to question how does he maintain such a wealthy household with such brains?
Jacopo the man Lydia is supposed to be attracted to, lives in his married sisters house and oddly no one seems to mind him bringing hookers there or going nude in broad daylight. All this when he has a young niece. The casting of Jacopo left a lot to be desired, the role needed someone very charismatic. The chemistry between Jacopo and Lydia didn't seem to exist, you wonder what the hell does she see in him. Andrea looks more adorable.
The core story is about how a capable Lydia is again and again denied her right to practise law because she is a woman. But you never feel devastated when she is denied. A major failure of the series that you don't empathise with the main characters' failure to achieve her only goal in life, to practise law.
Season 2 is going to again Lydia do her Holmes bit. Hopefully we see less of Jacopo and better writing.
3 Body Problem (2024)
Very entertaining
I see lot of reviews on the flaws in the adaptation. I havent read the book so cant comment. If I have to assume there is no book and its just a show, its very entertaining. It kept me hooked through all the episodes. The visual effects were fantastic. The acting is very good and story keeps good pace. The only disappointment is, that I have to watch future seasons to see how it ends.
The most appealing part are the religious connotations which you notice, if you watch carefully. Assuming that a higher unknown power will be benevolent and solve all your problems. Killing an unknown person for a leader or entity you don't even know exists or will meet.
Quite looking forward to the next season.
Dum Laga Ke Haisha (2015)
Charming simple story with good Hindi
Had heard the song "Moh Moh ke Dhaage.." many times but not seen the movie. Finally saw it on Prime and movie as good as the song. Its a very simple story of two mismatched people married and finding the differences don't matter when they love each other.
Ayushman Khurana excels in such roles and the actress Bhumi Pednekar is also very charming and good.
A very refreshing movie from Bollywood where there is normal Hindi spoken unlike the Westernised one in most movies. Simple people leaving in simple houses and dressed like an average Indian. Overall an authentic Indian setup unlike the Western aspirational garbage aimed at NRIs.
The comedy works in all scenes and also the serious scenes played by the older actors is very good.
A reluctant Prem is forced to marry an obese Sandhya because she is qualified to be a teacher and the family needs monetary help. Prem himself is a 10th fail due to his poor English skills. Prem cannot get over the looks of his wife and is further frustrated when he sees his friend marrying a pretty girl.
His wife who is an independent woman and no pushover can no longer take his indifference and files for divorce.
Like a normal Hindi movie, the rest of the movie is how they reconcile and find love for each other.
Bad Sisters (2022)
Brilliant writing and acting
The story is not very complex but it works great because of the fantastic writing and acting. Solid cast with great well-timed dialogues make the subtle comedy work magnificiently. The last episode I started laughing before the 3 sisters start laughing which showed how the show connects completely with you. And I wasn't even on a binge watch.
The locations are beautiful, probably the best tourism ad for Ireland after Derry Girls. I so badly want to visit the place after watching this show.
The plot is very simple. 4 sisters are trying to kill the evil husband of the 5th sister and failing hopelessly. Till of course he is popped by someone else. Now they have to hide their attempts from a overly inquisitive insurance investigator. The bonding between the sisters is so well constructed, you wish you had such strong sibling bonds.
But I wonder what will they come up in Season 2.
Last but not least, the theme song is the best I have heard since "Community".
Elsbeth (2024)
Loved Elsbeth the lawyer, dont like the detective
Elsbeth was one of my favourite characters in Good WIfe and Good Fight. The reason she was likeable was, she was used sparingly and solved difficult legal situations there.
Here the whole plot seems to bounce of her exuberant personality not on her legal acumen. The exuberant act gets tiring after a point and I can feel the actress trying too hard to be likeable. Then the show creators are also trying to sell NY in between.
The sleuthing part doesnt work at all, police are portrayed as completely incomptent and Elsbeth knows it all. And this was such a weak case.
Highly recommend they do better writing or bring some legal angle for her to argue to make the series more interesting. Else its a failed spin-off which is sad since "The Good Fight" was one of the best spin-offs ever.
Anweshippin Kandethum (2024)
Engaging simple thriller
This movie is not going to suprise you with major twists and turns like the Drishyam series but keeps you engaged the entire length of the movie. The stories are simple and well acted.
The main protagonist is a young cop investigating a girl's murder. He faces stiff resistance from locals when he tries to investigate a local monastery for the case. Things get more difficult when the senior officers in his own area sideline him from the case and want to close the case for political reasons. When an innocent man is forcibly framed, the dead girl's father appeals to him to find the real killer. So he starts the unofficial investigation and succeeds in finding the real killer(with support from a top police head). But tragic events out of his control lead to the suspension of his entire team.
The team is given a lifeline after some months by the police chief to investigate a 6-year old cold case. The whole village is in mutiny over a reinvestigation but the team still succeeds in identifying the killer.
The locations are very good. As for actors, Tovino Thomas has the maximum screen time with rest of the cast getting barely 20%. Since the film hints of a sequel, hope they give more scope to the other actors as well in the next movie.
Overall decent one-time watch.
Merry Christmas (2024)
A short story movie nowhere near Andhadun
I loved Andhadun the director's earlier movie. This is nowhere near it in any way. This is like a O Henry kind of short story dragged to a movie. Frankly the plot itself felt ridiculous and could have been shot in 30 mins. I fail to understand the 60 crore budget when it's mostly same street and house. VJS has a bad Hindi accent but you kind of start ignoring it after a point. Katrina is too botoxed. But acting wise this is definitely her best performance to date. Yet I missed Trisha when VJS and Katrina are walking the streets in '96' fashion, she would have been a great choice for the role. And the second half when you see her devious side I missed Tabu. The mediocre movie could have been elevated if they had a more solid actress than Katrina. This is a good start for Katrina the actress but the movie deserved a better one. Andhadun was elevated levels above, because of Tabu's phenomenal performance . I am bored of seeing Radhika Apte play similar kind of roles in all types of media. She has nothing new to offer here. Vinay Pathak was boring and overacting, Ashwini Kalsekar completely wasted.
Overall an be a one time watch with less expectations for VJS fans.
The Tashkent Files (2019)
Terrible movie - not because of the subject
Shastriji was the greatest PM of India and we lost him early due to some devious plot. I definitely agree with the movie's main point that a better investigation is needed on same.
But beyond that, the movie is a terrible piece of film making. They have content for just 15 mins of the film rest of the time, there are meaningless threats for information which is already out in the public. Disjointed scenes, overdramatic scenes and over acting from all except Mithun Chakraborty. Shweta Basu character is suddenly in Tashkent one day then in New Delhi the next day. Hidden spies and former agents conveniently show up to speak to her things which add no value to the entire enquiry. When there is a published book on the whole case, why would agents be killed for the same information. Shweta Basu overacts almost every scene.
Pallavi Joshi is a good actress in general but she did nothing here which deserved a National Award. The fact that such a bad film was recognised shows how political these awards have become.
Yes we need an investigation and we need a much much better film on this subject than this junk.
The Family Man (2019)
Fantastic, Prime understands the Indian audience
This is a brilliant series. Unlike Netflix which seems to address only high class/elite/woke audience, this is more realistic and addresses the average Indian. I have always been a fan of Manoj Bajpai and with a equally good supporting cast, the show takes it to next level. The dialogues are fabulous if you understand both Hindi and Tamil, which I do. The subtitles dont do justice.
Season 1 was quite good, Season 2 topped it with the wonderful research and realism. I speak all the languages in Season 2 so it was even more enjoyable for me. In fact I live around one of the areas mentioned. North Indians always display a half-baked knowledge of the Sri Lankan Tamil problem, for once we had a better understanding shown. The PM Basu character symbolises the complete lack of sensitivity shown to the Tamil sentiment by centre in general. Tamils were butchered by Jayawardene then Rajapaksa. Bandaranaike promoted the ghettoisation and marginalisation of Tamils but our dear PM Indira Gandhi gifted away a key island Katcha Theevu to them(we are still paying the price).
The only negatives were the character of Suchi and the ISI-Tamil link. Suchi is a very badly written character. All through Season 1, you are given the impression she has no idea of Sri's job which is why she is always cribbing. Then Season 2 you realise she does know. Again she is blaming him for her daughter's kidnapping. Honestly it was her irresponsible parenting which kept her daughter's movement to her in the dark. If your husband is fighting for the nation's security, you need to be more supportive.
ISI-Tamil link would have never happened. The Tamil rebel movement hated Muslims and they were pushed put of Jaffna by them so highly unlikely they will form an alliance.
Irandam Ulagam (2013)
Good idea - extremely bad execution
Selvaraghavan is a very creative director but he tends to get carried away with crude dialogues or too many elements like in this movie. The idea of parallel worlds and a couple having different experiences in same is fantastic. But what a mess of costumes, cinematography and even screenplay around the abnormal worlds .Anushka is as usual brilliant in all the worlds and as a fan, I truly felt sorry that her talents got wasted in such a movie. Arya is an actor of limited range and also looks terrible in the abnormal world with the wierd makeup and hairstyle.
You cant create an alternative world and timeline and have white looking people and then suddenly brown people. Lesser said about the costumes the better, absolutely no consistency. CGI sucks big time. This movie needed a director like SSR or Shankar to do justice to the sets, cinematography, costumes and all the visual elements. There was a good story there but very poor execution at all levels.
Criminal Record (2024)
Underwhelming end of Season 1
The series built up nicely to have a very damp end. I like both Cush Jumbo and Peter Capaldi's performance. Peter Capaldi is seriously unpredictable and scary in some scenes. You cant predict his thinking which made the show very interesting.
Just didnt understand the reluctance of the police department to investigate an obvious connection to a former case just to protect the image of some senior officers. Yes cops are human and miss sometimes but isnt justice more important than being right.
Cush Jumbo's character has to pick devious methods just to investigate new evidence in an old case where clearly there is a travesty of justice.
Overall the end was disappointing with no twists or surpises and kind of open ended.
Nefarious (2023)
Scary Christian propaganda
I give 5 points as the movie does scare you in places and the acting of the possessed fellow is very good. The whole goal of the movie is to scare you into following Catholic belief system.
As a non-Christian and non-American, these beliefs appear ludicrous once you start delving deeply into the fundamentals. The base concept of Jesus's teachings is supposed to be on love but the only way the radicals seem to want to propagate it seems to be through fear. Judging someone for eternity based on 60-70 years of your life and that too on things like baptism is illogical.
And why do they allow people to watch a execution? Seems an American thing.
Hanu Man (2024)
Entertaining.Go with open mind and watch in Telugu
The movie is probably in same genre as Bahubali and Kartikeya 2. But it has better plot elements than Kartikeya 2. I am not Telugu but watched it in Telugu as I feel dubbing really messes up the effect. First half is a little slow but the comedy works so you are not bored. Second half is where the action starts and keeps till the end.
Varalakshmi delivers a great performance as the caring sister to a wayward brother who finally redeems himself. The lead actor is also good, the lead actress somehow felt out of place. The village settings are visually appealing especially the huge Hanuman.
Dont expect the level of Bahubali or RRR in story or sets but its a honest attempt with the budget they had.
The film ends with a open ending for Part 2. I will be interested to see what they do with a better budget now that this movie has delivered massively. If you have kids, this is a very clean and entertaining movie for them(a rarity these days).
The Good Fight: The Gang Deals with Alternate Reality (2020)
Was sick of season 3 but this one is brilliant
After an atrocious Season 3 this is a brilliant episode. I have never liked the one-sided track of bashing Trump in earlier episodes. American democracy is not perfect and neither are Democrats. Both parties are equally deplorable and will weigh the same for their faults. Its just they are judged for different reasons.
As someone who felt Hillary was a wrong choice as a nominee, this episode hits the mark. After all the woman turned a blind eye to her husband's escapades and now with Epstein leaks we know it was much more than Monica. And to paint as her some feminist always felt ridiculous.
Hope the Season maintains this quality.
Reacher: Fly Boy (2024)
Awful no originality even in action scenes
This episode ends a disappointing season in a disappointing way. They got my hopes up with episode 7 alas only to go down the ditch.
Halfway through the series they reveal the main villian and the rest of the episodes, they are just trying to get him. And in the end as expected like a cliched Bollywood 80s action movie, beat all up, get caught then rescued, then kill the main villain. Does this look like a Hollywood plot of this decade, its a formula action film plot.
Even the plane rescue has been done with better stunts and imagination in "Mission Impossible" series many many years ago. I understand Reacher is this superman but the rest are humans. You get stabbed and shot and they are all carrying on as if nothing has happened. At the minimum the loss of blood should have made them dizzy but both Dixon and Donnell are walking around as if nothing happened. Every dialogue and scene was so predictable.
I terribly missed Roscoe from Season 1, wish they find some excuse to bring her back in Season 3. The story and the chemistry between Reacher and Roscoe was phenomenal, Season 2 the less said the better.
The Good Fight (2017)
Season 1 great, 2- so so, 3-stopped watching
I watched 3 seasons of good wife before I started watching this show. Season 1 was really very good and I loved they got some comedy elements in, which was lacking in good wife, I especially loved the grand jury episode. And bringing in Elsbeth Tascioni one of my favourite characters also helped. The lawyers here seem ed more humane unlike good wife where you had despicable characters like Canning,Patti and the Mathew Perry one. The chemistry between Lucca and Colin also played off very well.
Alas it started going down in Season 2 with their Trump obsession, still it wasn't bad. But 3 I stopped after the second episode with Blum. How did this rubbish of episode with the horrible acting of Michael Sheen get approved? Judges are not idiots to tolerate such obnoxious behavior and why is Maia not crying abuse which what it is ,by Blum.
As a non-US person I don't care for the Trump politics. And frankly I think both sides are equally bad, the world has to pay for the self-centered actions. Bush bombed thousands of innocent Iraqis and Obama's drone diplomacy killed so many innocents. So it's hard for us to see Trump as destroying civilization as being depicted.
Also the legal cases were the appeal of the series, that's completely lost.
Consecration (2023)
Hard to rate this
Its a bit difficult for me to rate this because of the Christian elements which I clearly don't get, as a non-Christian and not knowing the history of European christianity.
The movie is a bit slow, the lead character Grace is just wandering the abbey for 50 mins of the movie. She has come here after she is informed about her brother's suicide.
We get to know of her traumatic childhood of a half-crazed father abusing her and rest of the family, in the end stabbing her mother.
Then we have these shots of medieval age where some knights are the visiting this abbey.
The last 30 mins ,where some action happens, left with me lot of questions. Maybe someone who knows Christian theology may have understood what the hell is happening.
The odd part is that the movie doesn't take a stand on who is the bad person here, the church or Grace which makes me give them some points.
Reacher: The Man Goes Through (2024)
Good episode for action
Season 2 has been very disappointing with Reacher looking haggard and tired. The plot also has had no suspense or thrill elements.
This episode at least has some solid action and one-liners by Reacher which was sorely missing in the earlier episodes.
Season 1 still remains better in all aspects be it plot ,cast or location but for action fans they are redeemed a bit in this episode. It does have flaws like why would you ship the New Age lady and her daughter in full public view in daytime when you know Langston guys are actively looking for them.
Also the unit makes its so easy for Langston guys to locate them with no caution to do things discretely.
The biggest disappointment this Season has been the completely linear plot with flashbacks which are no way pertinent to the main story thrown in.
Kaathal - The Core (2023)
Overhyped because of the subject
I have always felt Mamootty as the better actor in the Malayalam star conflict. And he yet again and again proves his versatility and genuine drive for the art to take different roles.
The movie itself is very bland and plays very carefully to the point of credulity. Jyotika wants to divorce her husband of 20 years because she believes he is gay. She is apparently doing it for his own good and loves him to pieces. This argument itself felt absurd as the minute she knew he was contesting an election, she could have withdrawn the case and waited for the attention on him to die. She could have had a serious conversation with him and his father and walked out. But no she chooses a very public arena like court to out him.
There are a lot of unnecessary Christian prayer scenes which brings us to the point how on earth in such a religious Catholic area, there is no reaction to Mammootty's outing. Honestly even in an open country like US, the chances of a gay candidate winning an election in a Christian conservative area is zero and here in India, Mammootty gets no repercussions for it. Absolutely unbelievable.
Yes the makers wanted to highlight an issue but the story and the characters are completely unrealistic.
The 4 points are for Mammooty, I didnt find anything extraordinary in Jyothika's acting like rest. She has a very limited range.
Reacher (2022)
Season 2 boring, liked Season 1
I am seriously getting bored watching Season 2. It really drags. And for some reason Reacher looks very tired with sunk eyes. I loved all the characters in Season 1 and the plot kept you guessing till the end. Here you just want to get done with it as you can neither connect with the story or characters. And adding flashback scenes in the middle of a scene is very annoying as creates a disconnected sequence.
Season 1 had an adorable lady cop and the black cop was also very likeable. Here you don't care for any of them and I just dont understand how can you be so disrespectful to your commanding officer(Reacher). Its simply not done in my country, maybe its a US thing.
They should have spent at least one episode with the unit bonding and solving some cases. That would empathize with the deaths, here you just dont make any connect as none of the 110 unit members were given any character arc for you to understand them.
I will just watch the remaining episodes to finish it.
Highly recommend Season 1, give 2 a miss.
The Good Wife (2009)
At Season 3, Good but subtle racism
I was not aware of this series and saw it only after it appeared in Amazon Prime recently. Its quite well made and they manage to keep each case within one episode and still keep the interest and plot intact. That is some amazing creativity.
I liked Season 1 and 2 very much but 3 seems to drag. The lead actress also doesn't seem to have the range for Season 3, looks like she gave it her all in 1 and 2. The actors playing Diane and Eli gold are the best, Danny Lee and Kalinda are also fantastic.
Some characters are not written well and their actions make no sense. Cary is supposedly this brilliant Harvard graduate but he behaves in the most immature way throughout the 2 seasons. He gets fired because of recession but holds a grudge against the firm. Then when it gets hot in his new job, wants to be rehired by his old firm and when he cant get that on his terms. He again goes holds a grudge and tries to make things difficult for them. Again Alicia character is ok to have cordial relations with her husband who slept multiple times possibly with multiple women but goes cold towards Kalinda who slept once before with her husband in the past. Talk about hypocrisy.
There are no endearing Black characters for some reason. Almost all the main characters who are black are very unlikeable(subtle racism there).
One Night (2023)
Didnt work for me
The scenery is beautiful and the actors put their soul into the roles but the overall effect somehow doesn't connect. I don't understand how anyone can have PTSD of a event which they have no memory of, and its never explained in the series. The whole premise is of 3 friends who had a bad experience one night , one of them getting raped when she was unconscious and leaving the town after that. They meet 20 years after and have to relive the events in their mind and life as one of them Simone chooses to publish a book about it.
The younger versions certainly seem to have bonding but I could see no genuine connection between them as adults. And Simone keeps saying it's also her story, no its not because she is the only one who is not in trouble because of the book or the night. Try as hard as I might , I could not empathize with Jodie Whittaker's adult character because the younger version is shown bold and doesn't even have memory of the event.
Frankly "Hat" is the only character whose concerns seemed genuine.
And then there is this token Asian character who is a weasel trying to garner publicity at the expense of the anonymity of the writer.
A Haunting in Venice (2023)
Better than the earlier ones but still unnecessary
This whole Poirot series has not made any impact and I dont understand why Branagh continues to inflict this on the audience.
The cinematography is beautiful like the earlier movies. This movie definitely had a more interesting plot than rest but halfway through you can guess who is behind the murders.
David Suchet is to Poirot what Jermy Brett was to Sherlock Holmes. You want to redo Poirot, you give a different spin and dimension to the character like the Benedict Cumberbatch Sherlock series. They made him younger, put him in a different timeline , with brilliant screenplay and kept the core integrity of the characters. It started going down when they got over smart and added a non-doyle sister character in the last Season.
Kenneth Branagh is too grouchy and misses the playfulness and politeness of Suchet's Poirot. The egg measurement scenes are hilarious in the TV Poirot series, here you wont even chuckle.
The worst thing I felt was the treatment of Ariadne Oliver character.
My favourite episodes of Poirot series are ones which have Ariadne Oliver because Zoë Wanamaker makes her so adorable with her humour and enthusiasm. Any Poirot fan would know it was modelled on Agatha Christie herself.
And this movie actually makes her deceitful for a plot twist, Christie must be furious. And Tina Fey completely fails to make the character endearing.
How did they get Michelle Yeoh for such a tiny role is another wonder?
Humbly request to stop this series or at least don't call the main character Poirot.
The Fall of the House of Usher (2023)
Mirror of the society
I liked "Midnight Mass" very much and decided to watch this one. While this one does not stand to the level of "Midnight Mass" in story or suspense, it still holds its ground.
The profanity and adult scenes are a bit too much. The acting is very good and the dialogues when there is no profanity are good.
The series is a mirror to society where you can get away with anything if you are rich.
The main plot is of the Head of the Usher family confessing his role in the death of all his progeny. His sons and daughters are messed up, entitled selfish brats but none of them are classified as criminals. You feel no remorse for any of their deaths. This is a reflection that society tolerates such behaviour and works around it to favour themselves instead of questioning the ethics around same. Such entitlement and brazen disrespect for any ethics or total lack of humanity is encouraged by the fawning assistants.
The series is a commentary on capitalism at its worst. Human life has no value.
Cold Case (2003)
Pathetic at every level - Episode 1
I saw the first episode of this series based on the high rating. It was pathetic at every level. The threadbare plot, abrupt screenplay, mediocre acting and the lead actress who clearly has a Meg Ryan hangover.
There is no discretion or finesse in dealing with any of the witnesses by the police officers. The questioning is juvenile with zero tact.
Just finished a british series Karen Pirie which has a similar situation of investigating a cold case, thats how you do it. British somehow seem to get it when it comes to just shows be it Broadchurch or even Scott&Bailey.
How did this get such a high rating? Unless it improves but doubt I can tolerate the Meg Ryan copy anymore.