jacqueestorozynski Reviews

The Affair (2014–2019)

Too Long and too much swearing

[7/10 · 8 April 2023]

I was enjoying this series up to Series Three, although it was very confusing and you had to keep your wits about you. However, it then began to go down hill, with whole episodes of fillers. Noah goes off to Paris, has a day out on the Island etc etc. Why did he go off with Anton to Princeton? Then new characters are introduced, usually women so that Noah can have a bonking session and the sex scenes happened so often they began to be boring. Then there was the rudest most foul mouthed daughter anyone could have in the shape of Witney and it was tolerated.

If they cut out half the sex and swearing from the script we could have ended at Series Three.

It was also quite unbelievable that everyone Noah met fell for him and a famous film director would fall for a plain middleaged woman with four kids. It was all dragged out for no real purpose, trailer scenes of the story so far showed scenes that were never shown in the actual episodes, and then a woman turns up with a black husband without any explanation until I finally worked out the child Joanie had grown up. OMG how many years have passed.

We were all at the mercy of self indulgent writers I'm afraid.

The Inspector Lynley Mysteries (2001–2007)

A mystery that made mysterious character changes

[8/10 · 30 November 2022]

I decided to watch this series again from episode one and I really enjoyed it. However I found miserable Helen annoying and then in the last few episodes she had a complete personality transplant when a different actress played her. Lynley meanwhile had turned into a misery but I didn't understand why bringing in another actress, presumably Helen one wasn't available, they bumped her off, so more Lynley misery. Havers was brilliant but they should have given her a romance, and an extremely pregnant woman officer ( Lisa Tarbuck) was unbelievable. The story lines were strong until the last few as Havers acted like the senior officer. It was an enjoyable watch but the plug was pulled like Foyles War because it was too expensive. However they bought that back, why not Lynley?

Young Wallander (2020–2022)

A police whispering drama

[5/10 · 16 November 2022]

I watched the first series twice as I had forgotten I had not finished the series before. I must say it doesn't grab you and although I accept it is nothing to do with Wallender, I find it most annoying. The lead actor is very pretty but talks in a strange whisper and he is surrounded by English actors who seem out of place. A lawyer in the interview room sounded like he had walked off the set of Eastenders.

The black gang members all 'okay bruv' and most of the time unintelligible and the typical scenario of the boss saying not do do something and Wallender does it anyway and gets beaten up. How many times have there been police dramas where the underling gets in trouble with superiors for ignoring their instructions. When he chased the poor immigrant and there was a gun standoff, Wallender, nearly talked him to death, surely one of them would have been shot. He seems to sleepwalk everywhere, finds someone to interview, talks about nothing and leaves. Not sure if I will bother with series 2 as I had difficulty making it through series 1.

Mad Men (2007–2015)

Welcome to the world of a 60s advertising agency peopled by sexist drunks

[8/10 · 14 March 2022]

I only recently came to this series and was really enjoying it although I did get tired of episodes with all the sex scenes as they became boring. Additionally, I can't believe that women would work with sexist pigs as they ones in this ad agency were. I worked in a similar environment in that period and although women were treated like secretaries and chatted up they weren't subjected to sexual harassment. By Series 6 Don morphed into a really unpleasant character and there was too much time filling with dinners, dream sequences and trips to Hawaii etc. It was clever that they bought in factual news events and showed the reaction from the people in the world at large. However, I don't know how they ever came up with any advertising schemes as the staff spent most of the time asleep in the office or drinking. I also had a problem with Don's lady friends as in the early series they all looked alike and I couldn't tell one from the other. I think the show should have ended earlier as it went on too long and became tired with too much repetition.

Ammonite (2020)

So letter writing makes you a lesbian

[1/10 · 2 February 2022]

What a strange dreary film. The fact that Mary Anning was a famous paleontologist even though in her day she didn't get the credit that she was due is incidental. In this film. The real woman had a good friend that she wrote to, but instead, she gets in bed with her with some soft porn is thrown in for good measure. It is almost as if the fact that Charlotte Bronte wrote to her good friend Mrs Gaskell means that they were really lesbian lovers and went to bed together. What rubbish this film is and is not even an interesting watch. Kate Winslett had hardly any lines and spent most of the time staring into space. Don't waste your time on this one- I had lost the will to live by the end.

Sylvia (2003)

Miscast

[5/10 · 25 March 2021]

This film about Sylvia Plath has a lot to offer apart from the total miscasting of mr Potato Head As Ted Hughes. It would have been better with someone big and dark but with sensitivity like Richard Armitage, Daniel played it like a surly teenager and his accent kept coming and going. Gwynneth was good at playing herself as an American for once. Ted was a well known philanderer so he must have had charm. Daniel didn't have any. There should have been more about Sylvia before she met him, to understand she was a depressive long before she met Ted, and always suicidal. It was referred to, but we needed more.

Three Sisters (1970)

Excellent production

[10/10 · 17 January 2021]

Caught this on Talking Pictures and was really impressed. I have seen the play before on stage and think of it as a dreary piece, but this version has changed my opinion. It is the most naturalistic performanceI I have ever seen Laurence Olivier do. There is a lovely performance by Louise Purnell who I recently caught during lockdown when I dug out an old box set of Forsyte Saga. It was also interesting to see a very young Ronald Pickup and Derek Jacobi. I was most impressed. Additionally it was good to see the excellent Alan Bates who had replaced Robert Stephens who was ill. Some reviews mention poor sound but everything was clear and there were no problems,

A Simple Favor (2018)

Too much talking

[5/10 · 16 November 2020]

OMG what an irritating actress the lead Anna Kendrick is. for most of the time her delivery was so fast it was unintelligible. Thank heavens for Henry Golding who at least was believable. The end was particularly ridiculous and so was the storyline.

Rebecca (I) (2020)

What a disappointment

[3/10 · 22 October 2020]

I was looking forward to this production as a fan of the book and the Hitchcock film and was wondering what a new version would add to it. The answer is - nothing, apart from a bit of sex on the beach ( not the cocktail). The two leads were totally uncharismatic. I am not familiar with Armie Hammer as an actor, he gave a creditable performance and looked handsome. Unfortunately, it wasn't of Maxim De Winter. There was no class, he was much too gentle and friendly and when he admitted how much he hated Rebecca, he just came over as a wimp. Lily James played the part of the un-named second wife as a school girl, why on earth would Maxim be interested in her. There was no gothic tension, Manderley appeared to be a large open library, as everyone trecked through a large tiled hallway that went on for ages. There was some beautiful photography of the South of France, but the restaurant refusing to serve the paid companion because she wasn't a guest was nonsense. She had a room at the hotel. After the first hour, I began to be bored and lost interest, but felt duty bound to stick with it to the end. I liked the performance of the cad by Sam Riley and it took me ages to work out where I had seen him before and then remembered it was the TV mini series SS-GB. However, in that he had a deep gravelly voice, damaged it was said at the time for singing Heavy Metal. Now he has morphed into SImon Williams. Everything dragged on and then was wound up quickly - a case of they think it's all over, it is now. If she was alive, Daphne Du Maurier must wonder where she went wrong.

The Luminaries (2020)

Confused? You will be

[3/10 · 13 July 2020]

I must say this drama series is hard to follow. It comes and goes in time to such an extent that i spend most of the time trying to work out if it is past or present. It isn't helped by most of the scenes being shot in darkness, so often you can't tell who the perpretrators are, Crosby Wells and Frank Carver look like the same person most of the time. People just turn up in the mining town in their posh frocks where in other scenes getting ashore in rowing boats usually means being washed up on rocks, BY episode 4 I thought I had worked out the story and then came episode 5 and I lost it completely. Chinamen were being shot at but then were sitting in a room with other men whilst a newcomer tells a story only he didn't, people were walking about in the dark, or following dead men down a beach then turning up with wounds that came from nowhere. I give up, although I didn't because having come this far I feel I have to see the last episode.

Bono's daughter Eva Green is good at staring into space , although I keep thinking I am watching Emily Blunt and Himesh Patel is better than In Yesterday, but what a mish mash . Telling a story in flash back is all the rage now but not every five minutes. A resounding no from me.

North & South (2004– )

A superlative period drama

[10/10 · 21 June 2020]

Having seen this series on TV, I bought the DVD and it comes out regularly every year. I never tire of watching it. Although, there are differences with the script from the book which I have also read several times, it works. Richard Armitage is ideally cast as the taciturn mill owner John Thornton, he didn't act the part he absorbed the character. His love for Margaret Hale ( Daniela Denby-Ashe ) was written all over his face even when he wasn't speaking. Additionally, there was a chemistry between the two leads although Daniela didn't look like the typical glamorous leading lady. She had morphed into a beautiful but plain Victorian lady, if that is possible. Some of the license taken with the book I think wasn't necessary particularly the beating of the worker, nowhere did Mrs Gaskell write that John Thornton was brutal. Additonally, the love scene in the railway station would never have happened in Victorian times as it would have shocked the passengers. A kiss in a railway carriage destroyed an army career in real life at that time. However, the build up in the novel has a rather flat ending as the lovers just agree to tell the aunt they want to marry. People today need more visual emoting, but no thrashing about or bed scenes for a period novel. Richard was such a kind, gentle lover in that written ending that there was a definite Aah! Especially from the ladies, with its restrained subtext of sexual attraction. The filming in the real cotton mill, which is the only working one left in Manchester and often turns up in Northern dramas was used very effectively with all the snowy cotton in the air. Additionally, there was a very human performance by Brendan Coyle who always comes over as a warm, believable character whatever part he plays. In this as Higgins, he is a firebrand but is still likeable, of course he is more well known now in Downton Abbey. Although I have seen the show many times, this time I was surprised to realise that the flighty Thornton sister was Jo Joyner who has recently achieved success in Shakespeare and Hathaway. She bought a lightness and comic touch to the story. I was uncertain about Sinead Cusack's northern accent, she seemed to be talking with gritted teeth. However, as the besotted mother with an iron will she played the part well. I am a fan of Mrs Gaskell's writing and I am steeped in Victorian novels and this adaptation by Sandy Welch made the story interesting for modern eyes, but kept the period in place, something that Andrew Davies, usually so good, didn't manage withi his recent adaptation of Jane Austen's Sanditon. I was unsure what one of the other reviewers meant when he said that Mrs Gaskell had scandal re toy boys. She was a vicar's wife and only turned to writing as consolation when her baby died. I think he might be muddling her with George Eliot who married a much younger man in later life who committed suicide. Anyway, the DVD is coming out again and Richard Armitage is becoming more well known with Spooks, Berlin Station and various other TV series. Although he was in the film of The Hobbit I am surprised he hasn't had more stardom in Hollywood movies but then perhaps he prefers to stay in the UK.

Book Club (I) (2018)

How times change

[9/10 · 6 May 2020]

In the nineties three funny women made a film called the Ex Wives club. It starred Goldie Hawn, Diane Keaton and Bette Midler as three demented middle aged women getting revenge on husbands who had dumped them for younger models. Move forward to 2018 and three middle aged women , read a sexy book and realise they want sex, in both films one of the women is Diane Keaton , playing overwrought and hysterical, it is the same character. The only difference is the first film is listed in the top 500 funniest films and Book Club is slated and has terrible reviews. Demented women are not funny any more. What has happened? Has humour changed? Must women not be found funny in this politically correct age?. I laughed out loud at this film, I thought Candice Bergen as the most natural looking actress looked stunning, Diane Keaton's hysteria got on my nerves in both films and Jane Fonda now looks very strange, she has morphed into her father Henry. Of the two films I found Book Club far the better and funnier film. What has happened to audiences?

No Room at the Inn (1948)

Dated, but worth a watch

[7/10 · 26 April 2020]

I saw this film years ago as a child and it stuck in my memory, so when it appeared on TV on the Talking Pictures channel, I watched it again. Of course some of the acting is over the top, tipping into caricature. But the children are brilliant. Joan Dowling steals the film and it is sad that she committed suicide in the early fifties, as she had so much to give. An aunt had tales to tell of similar experiences as an evacuee and there is a moral to the film as the do gooders turn a blind eye when asked to help. The denouement is a bit mellow dramatic and the film ends suddenly which is a bit odd, especially as the story is told in flashback, one of the children as an adult is recounting it. We needed a bit more of the scenes from the beginning revisited at the end. Still I enjoyed seeing it again.

Miss Scarlet & the Duke (2020– )

Enjoyable but silly

[6/10 · 15 April 2020]

I was looking forward to this series and have enjoyed watching it but the storylines are feeble. As the female detective solves each crime why is there an argument with the police inpector (who is a Hugh Jackman clone) every time. It would make more sense if they just joined forces, It does fall into the trap of men being weak creatures and the woman the brains. If the inspector really was a drunken womaniser, he wouldn't remain in the job very long and why would Miss Scarlet have anything to do with him. The ghost father is nice touch but the stories need to beef up and the relationship develop otherwise it will become a bore the same thing every week. I will keep watching for the moment as it is gentle and sometimes amusing.

Snatched (2017)

Something to laugh at

[7/10 · 13 April 2020]

I found the reviews on here very strange. I don't know Amy Schumer but I found her very funny. I am the first person to dislike vulgarity and violence but in comparison with most films nowadays there was hardly any, in fact the first was minimal and the violence was comic. I found myself laughing out loud all through the film. Goldie was her usual zany self. The story was silly and events moved along very unrealistically, but it was an enjoyable couple of hours watch. I spent ages trying to work out who the handsome actor was that got them into the mess and then realised it was Tom Bateman. How he ended up in this film I couldn't work out but the main thing I couldn't get used to was Goldie Hawn's new, stretched face.

Vita & Virginia (2018)

Strange casting

[1/10 · 6 April 2020]

As someone who is steeped in reading about the Bloomsbury Set I was keen to watch this film but I couldn't get over the very strange casting, I had no problem with the acting although I did get irritated by Elizabeth Debicki constantly staring into space. The film was so slow it almost came to a standstill. Added to which, Vita was known to be a tall, manly woman but Gemma Arterton as Vita nipping at Virginia's heels was almost comic, like Little and Large. Rupert Penry Jones was wasted as Harold Nicholson and who on earth was behind the casting of Adam Gillen as Duncan Grant should get another job. He seemed to be playing the same part as he did in Benidorm, twitchy and comic.

All in all it was a disappointment .

City of Angels (1998)

Downbeat and boring

[1/10 · 8 March 2020]

I started watching this on TV but gave up after one hour. The whole thing was just weird, Meg Ryan meets a strange man in the middle of the the night in the empty corridors of a hospital and has a chat. He talks in riddles, she would be screaming and calling for security. Most of the time Nicholas Cage acts as though he has special needs. Meg looks about twelve years old, and is not at all believable as a top surgeon. It has been turned into a musical, I can't imagine that. Do the dead link arms and do the okey cokey?

Catherine the Great (2019)

So Russians use four letter words in the 1700s

[2/10 · 18 February 2020]

I watched this on a plane as a box set, and after the first episode I was seriously considering giving up, apart from Helen Murren being much too old, the photography was so dark you could hardly see her. Anyway I stuck with it and it improved but there was no attempt to set it in period, four letter words abounded , the sex scenes were laughable, familiar faces playing Russians glowering round corners, and a terrible script. Redeemed by beautiful, scenery and costumes , it was a poor production and totally miscasting a star name who is showing her age, when she could have played the older Catherine and a younger actress play her younger self would have made more sense,

Dalziel and Pascoe: Foreign Bodies (2000) Season 5, Episode 3

An insult to the intelligence

[2/10 · 23 June 2018]

The coincidences were so far fetched as to be totally unbelievable. Supposedly unrelated murders that happened just by chance whilst, ugly mug Dalziel is romancing an old flame with lots of ex husbands. Pascoe walked around with a face like fury and a creepy college lecturer hovered around and turned out to be murderous, there were hints of Dracula when a Rumanian floats into Whitby in a coffin? end came with absolutely no explanation why these people who turned out to be exes were bumped off and and the old flame swanned off on a cruise, having pushed the current husband a toy boy, into the water to be rescued and arrested. Complete and utter rubbish, Malcolm Bradbury should be ashamed to have had a hand in it.

I Give It a Year (2013)

Complete rubbish

[2/10 · 27 December 2015]

What an awful film. It was crude and rude and totally unfunny. What on earth possessed Rafe Spall and Simon Baker to do this film. The story was puerile, Minnie Driver's character was obnoxious to her husband for no particular reason. The family scenes with the digital photos and Charades were embarrassing and the strange dialogue that Rafe was mumbling in the underwear shop was plain ridiculous, what is more the scene where he goes in the cubicle with the friend and starts whittering about venereal diseases when he is attracted to her was the most stupid rubbish I have heard. The writer should be ashamed of himself. Anyone signing up to this film must have been desperate for money.

Shaka Zulu (1986)

Shaka mini series disappointing

[7/10 · 3 November 2015]

As someone who is very interested in the Zulu nation and having read many books on this subject particularly The Washing of Spears by Donald R Morris- I was looking forward to watching the DVD box set. I had caught odd episode repeats on TV and wanted to view it properly. However, I was disappointed with it. The editing was appalling. SCenes suddenly ended as the screen went black and new scenes started without any natural chronology - I assume to fit in adverts on TV. Whole scenes of the tribal episodes had the use of the Zulu language without subtitles so there was no explanation of what was happening. Additionally, some of the local actors used had such thick accents they needed subtitles when speaking English and some of the acting was very stilted and wooden. Also the battle scenes although they had a cast of thousands looked artificial. Warriors were dying all over the place with a bit of tomato sauce and no real injury. Shaka saves a warrior who has a spear in his back, when he meets him later there is no scar. The fighting had no real explanation about who hey were fighting. One minute he is taken in by someone, then he is with someone else. The scenes with the usual stockpot of English actors who always turn in a decent performance were good as one would expect. I particularly liked Edward Fox who dropped his Edward 8th mannerisms for a change. Henry Cele looked majestic as Shaka so was well cast, but the scenes in his younger years were awful. Dudu Mkhize as Nandi, SHaka's mother gave the best performance in the whole series. It seemed neither a film nor a documentary but as it was apparently made in South Africa before the end of Apartheid at least it let the magnificent Zulus relive their history

Effie Gray (2014)

Slow but interesting

[7/10 · 28 July 2015]

As someone steeped in Pre-raphaelite history and having read many books re the Effie Gray/Ruskin marriage I was interested in seeing this film. At first I was ready to dislike it based on inaccuracies like the fact that Millais paintings shown at the beginning, where Effie was the model. were on display when the artist hadn't met her yet. I also disliked Julie Walters who was back doing Mrs Overall. However, after a while I began to warm to it and although it was slow I enjoyed watching it. My only criticism would be that the build up to a climax (more than Effie got) was wasted as there should have been much more about the court case annulment and Effie's marriage to Millais. The masturbation scene was completely unnecessary and did not add to the film. I did wonder why Celestia Fox who was responsible for the casting, made Millais look like everyone's idea of Rossetti and nothing like the baby faced golden haired artist of fact. Greg Wise seems to be cornering the market in cold, austere characters witness the reason TV production Outcast, but he plays them well. I wasn't sure about Emma Thompson, she has mannerisms that can be irritating. When the film ended I was left feeling that we were left hanging and anyone who knew nothing of the story would have wondered what the point of the film was.

A Dorothy L. Sayers Mystery (1987– )

Wonderful characterisation and period detail

[10/10 · 13 March 2015]

I have been looking for this series since I caught a small piece on TV years ago. Suddenly, there it was on the Drama channel and as far as I'm concerned it could do no wrong. Edward Petherbridge as Lord Peter is wonderful, his witticisms and desire for Harriet in the stories is so believable. He doesn't need to speak for it to be written on his face. Although I am not a fan of Harriet Walter, in this piece she was exactly right. I am so disappointed that only three of the stories were made, I just wanted them to continue into the couple being married etc. I have no desire to see the Ian Carmichael production as for me Petherbridge is the definitive Lord Peter. The story lines unravelled slowly with great attention to period detail and the polite formal behaviour of the time. Wonderful! My only criticism is that in the last story Gaudy Nights there was not enough of the couple together and too much of the the ladies in the university having intellectual debates. Then it was rounded up too quickly in the last few minutes, Harriet agrees to marry Lord Peter in a couple of seconds. However, Petherbridge's acting was impeccable and you really believed he was afraid to ask her as it would be the final refusal. I could watch the episodes again and again.

The Tamarind Seed (1974)

Romance revisited

[8/10 · 1 December 2014]

I really liked this movie when it first came out and now having decided to watch it again all these years later I was ready to be disappointed. However, although it is definitely a film of its time with the cold war and reds in the bed the relationship between the two leads, Julie Andrews and Omar Shariff was totally believable. I suppose by today's standards Omar is a bit too much of a charmer but it works. Another surprise was to see Sylvia Sims as she used to be and not how she is now playing bag lady parts or the queen mum. It was also nice to see Bryan Marshall again who was once a stalwart of TV and film and seems to have disappeared back to Australia. There is a charm about the film probably because there is a chemistry between Julie and Omar. It is strange when you see the leading lady trotting around in blouses and smart pressed trousers looking very much the secretary. Especially as it was around the same time as the Bond movies and the women are usually half dressed although Julie does sit reading a book in a bikini. Definitely worth watching again.

Noah (2014)

Computer disaster game for teens

[6/10 · 4 October 2014]

I like Russell Crowe and think he can always bring something to a movie even if the script isn't very good. My God (it is a biblical epic) he had to work hard in this film. It was all special effects and no story. The story from the bible is quite well known so why they had to dress it up like an episode of Lord of the Rings I am not sure. Russell made no attempt to hide his Ozzie/New Zealand accent and as for Ray Winstone whenever he said 'WIV' I thought I was watching Eastenders. I am constantly amazed that he gets cast in Hollywood movies. When Emma Watson turned up we were waiting for some Harry Potter magic to save the world. We'd forgotten what we were watching, it could have been Transformers as these giant stone men kept striding about. When we had the big build up for Noah interpreting Gods' will that only the people on the ark could survive ( in one scene some animals were killed- so that was one species that would have died out) he suddenly became all cuddly and warm. I wonder if he saw the script before he signed up.