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The Flight Attendant (2020)
Flight of Fancy
Why did I watch to the end? I don't know. All the clues were there....the dialogue was dire, the 'heroine' a promiscuous drunkard, and no opportunity was lost to introduce foul language. 'Cassie' is very pretty, but attempts at making an alcoholic scatter-brain likeable have failed. We have a heap of jaded plot lines all going on at the same time, big companies up to no good, murderous corporations with shady 'clients' , drug traffickers, assassins popping up here, there, and everywhere, the FBI, CIA, North Korean spies, law firms with suspicious connections, suicide pills, childhood trauma, giant rabbits, and running amok through them all is Cassie, Alex is the first to meet a horrible end, then Sabrina is thrown from a height, Max is mowed down by a car, and dear Enrico from Rome who was only trying to help gets stabbed, I found myself worrying about how his kindly grandmother would take this news.
The two bickering detectives said things to each other that in real life would involve a HR Department. Miranda had all the depth of a cartoon villainess but I don't care for fight scenes between men and women, even when they've both bad, bad, bad. Annie was believable and carried much-needed lowering of frenzied activity...Alex too held a steady presence but this series couldn't be saved. I still can't figure out why there was a whole room full of big colourful whirring computers in an abandoned dockside warehouse with absolutely no one there to, well, do whatever needs done to big colourful whirring computers. Series 2 has poor reviews, I don't think I'll watch it.
Morden i Sandhamn (2010)
Once you notice you can't not notice..
There is nothing distressing or disturbing in this series, like a gentle stroll through an idyllic beauty spot with only an occasional murder here and there to distract from the views.....but there is, in fact, an underlying something that irks the senses and once you see it you can't stop seeing it.
Everyone is dressed in ice-berg blue and soft cream, even the guys have an ensemble of snowy-white tees, pale blue shirts and driftwood-grey trousers.
There is every shade of pastel blue and cotton cream, sometimes there is a flash of emerald green but it doesn't last long.
Interiors also share this phenomenon, all rooms are, well, pale blue and cream.
Nora rides around the place on her bicycle wearing the regulation colours, knows everyone and, since we are at season 4 right now, has been deeply involved in every case. Nora annoys me. Thomas endlessly gets phone calls and dashes off to the latest dastardly deed leaving everyone to stare at the empty spot he once occupied. Boss lady Margit is an idiot. Oh well, the sunsets are stunning, the rock formations are rounded in the most amazing way., the homes are delightful, the seascapes truly wonderful and the colours are...... ? Guess!
Manyeo 2: Lo go (2022)
Who are all these people and what are they doing in this film?
I really really tried. Everyone dressed the same, looked the same, everyone had super powers, they sneered at each other, slaughtered each other, I couldn't follow the subtitles because they came and went out of sync, the Korean names may have referred to people or to places so it was an effort to grasp who was who. We're there two sets of sisters? Was wheelchair lady someone's sister? Why did the part 2 girl look younger than part 1 girl? Oh dear....someone will have to slowly explain it all......I just can't! This confusing movie is a disappointment because Korean films are usually gripping, but part 2 lacked a story-line and relied heavily on CGI action whereas the characters in part 1 developed at a reasonable pace and the plot led us on to expect a great follow-up. If part 3 recaptures the mood and sense of danger in the first film it should be worth waiting on!
Vikingulven (2022)
Wonder Woman v The Werewolf
Anyone with only a basic understanding of folklore knows if a victim survives a werewolf bite, well, beware the next full moon. As the body count mounts, including a bus-load of passengers either mauled or killed by the beast, there are no extra police brought in at any time, even after hunters, a press photographer, an asylum seeker, and the police chief are torn to shreds. By the way, the big burly police chief can't stomach the medical examination of the first victim, leaving the female coroner and the female cop to poke through the remains. He is scared witless in the woods upon seeing a corpse and instructs the female cop to take charge of the hunt. The animal expert sent to examine the bodies looks as though he is still going through puberty.
The female mayor is held back from seeing what's left of her daughter's mangled body yet recovers quickly enough to give a chirpy little speech to the townsfolk. A grizzled old man who knows all about werewolves drives his truck through a big glass window and almost kills the vet and the cop who were holding it closed. The cop's house-husband is left bleeding and slumped over the wheel of his car.....he is never seen or heard of again......
The most risible scene must be when the wolf has the cop pinned to the ground, it's massive fangs sink deep into the flesh and bone of her arm, it's jaws gnawing down on the limb and in a sort of conversational way, she calls out to the vet for help. Very soon she is driving home, both arms intact and able to hang up her coat, despite the fact one arm had been broken in her first brush with the wolf earlier on in the film.
Also, what of those bitten but survived? Oh dear...what will happen in four weeks time?
Treason (2022)
Senseless story
Oh, have you ever yearned for a film or series where people make sensible decisions, and where you don't scoff at every twist and turn?
This series is risible in its entirety, I sincerely hope no human behaves like the characters in 'Treason'. It seems as though a story of sorts is knit loosely around plot holes, for example, the daughter is kidnapped, the family home is under police and secret service protection, no one comes or goes without serious security yet both parents manage to leave and return with the kidnapped girl and no explanation follows. The wife is prepared to spy on her husband under the flimsy influence of a 'friend'....there is a lot of running round and getting nowhere, no one can be trusted.
A lone assassin sets up outside a safe house in the dead of night in order to kill the father, who cowers under the kitchen table with his children while his wife and another woman stride off into the darkness, armed to the teeth, to create a diversion and kill the gunman.
The women are portrayed as fierce fighters, brave, seeking only justice, the men are either traitorous, or weak-willed, or disloyal, and by the way, you didn't have to read this review at all.....the opening scene is a foretaste of what is to come where a woman walks from a side-street through the kitchen entrance of a very exclusive club, (a club where a Supreme Court Justice is a member) snatches a uniform conveniently lying around, no one even glances at her while she makes her way to the dining area and poisons the head of MI6, then smiles and leaves.
Comment je suis devenu super-héros (2020)
Super Silly
Just viewed 'How I became a Superhero', I didn't like it. I've seen too many first class sci-fi movies to be impressed with this drivel. I could happily accept humans with abilities to control matter, to move at lightning speed, to blast blue laser beams from the eyes, to send blazing fire from the finger tips and even a population with super-power anxiety, but I could not accept a slightly built woman fight a fully-grown man and walk away with nothing more than a rather fetching little swelling on the upper lip. I find it disturbing to see men physically fight women, the force of the punches and blows would render any woman unconscious in the first seconds and it is a pretence to portray females as being as aggressive and brutal as males. The 3-star rating was solely for potential.
Outlier (2020)
A lesson in how not to produce a crime drama
The main character (Maja) is extremely unlikeable, the police chief is useless, police officers are portrayed as having a low intellect, one such wears a permanent expression of bewilderment while, well, just following everyone around. Indeed, the entire police force seem incapable of rational thought unless they take direction from the recently arrived Maja. There is an insane mother who plays no meaningful part whatsoever in the plot, just stares into space, sings to a head-stone, or screeches obscenities at her daughter. The unravelling of the identity of the killer relies, bizarrely, on Maja's vague 'feeling' of childhood abuse that, despite affecting every aspect of her character, she has absolutely no memory of. Maja's unjustified outburst at her father drives him to suicide, he is not mentioned again, neither is the father of the kidnapped girl, nor the goings-on at the hotel, whenever someone is about to reveal information they are either ignored or interrupted. The police engage the assistance of the National electricity board and an elaborate plan is hatched......never referred to again.
The killer, for some illogical reason, livestreams his victim but the police, save for a glimpse now and then, don't watch it...the poor girl is kept for several days tied to a chair and given only water. A jogger stumbles upon the killer's hideout, his 'bones' are found within a day in the burnt-out cabin which miraculously is now stone-cold, and would need to have been furnace-level heat to reduce a body to ashes. He is never mentioned again. Not one other person has connected a clutch of missing girls with the current case, only Maja can see the blindingly obvious. There are innumerable similar faults.... This should be compulsory viewing in how not to produce a crime drama.
Those Who Wish Me Dead (2021)
Oh Dear
I can suspend belief when presented with, say, time travel, aliens, portals into other dimensions, super powers and so forth but a heavily pregnant woman fending off two armed and experienced assassins then riding off on horseback to warn her husband? How did she mount up without help? I'm surprised she was able to get to her feet after being flung across the floor. This woman then has a shoot out with one of the bad guys and manages to climb all the way up a steep, high ladder to a watch tower....in the dead of night.....while a blazing forest fire consumes all in its path. Our other Wonder Woman, the fire-fighter, attempts hand-to-hand combat with 2nd bad guy only to get beaten with a force that should have loosened teeth, blackened eyes and broken jaws yet she survives with only a fetching little scratch and some faint bruising. Also, several characters spend the night literally 'beating about the bush'.....where is everybody else?
Cold Blood Legacy (2019)
Deep snow, thin plot
Rented this movie Amazon Prime, felt as dazed and confused as the heroine....so many questions...who was behind the father's murder? The girl's injuries were severe one minute and next minute she seemed hale and hearty. The black guy sure had a number of very fortunate leads in finding the whereabouts of the girl, including one witness who identified her from a photo despite the fact he saw her from a distance and she was encased in her helmet.
I tell you, my husband and I have fun picking at the holes, so if you like to feel very superior, you can watch this....but wait 'till it shows up for free.
Mary G.
Ava (2020)
She shoots, she slices, she fights and dices with death and not a hair harmed, or even ruffled.
Amazing Ava recovers from alcohol addiction, joins the army and emerges 8 years later an accomplished assassin. Ava can speak several languages. Ava can infiltrate any establishment, kill in various fashions all the while wearing a beautiful red dress. Ava can out-run the fastest pursuer, throw big burly men over her shapely little shoulders, knock the senses out of gangland bodyguards, get punched, thrown down hard, fist-punched in the face and attend dinner that same evening with only a rather fetching little mark on the right cheekbone.
Why Ava does all this is never made clear.