gam3 Reviews

Masterpiece Mystery: Hercule Poirot, Series X: Third Girl (2010) Season Unknown, Episode Unknown

Why so many changes to the story?

[7/10 · 6 August 2023]

I really don't understand what the screen writer was thinking when they made this adaptation. I can see making changes for time or even some content, but the changes they made here only made the story more complicated. Did they writer think they where going to be able to write something better that Agatha Christie?

It just was not believable that they would put up the retired nanny in her own apartment and then have the daughter have to share a room.

I guess they did not want the Doctor to be in the show and they still wanted a love interest for the girl, but this still does not explain the half sister or the Nanny.

It is an okay story it not much to convoluted at the end and certainly not as good a the original story. Suchet's Peirot is so good it is always worth watching, however the final season certainly had many issues.

The Man Who Finally Died (1963)

And I always thought Stanley Baker could act.

[7/10 · 19 July 2022]

I suppose one could blame the director (Quentin Lawrence), but I am going to put it on Mr. Baker. He is the worst part of this film. The story is quite well told. With all the twists and turns as we go through. But the. Joe Newman screams through the whole movie. In almost every scene he is in his acting is jarring the anger that he emotes with out any known reason.

The love story is also ruined by this over acting, as it is hard to see any intimacy when one of the couple is yelling each line.

Vigil (2021– )

It could have been great.

[6/10 · 19 June 2022]

While certainly watchable and having an interesting plot, the writers simply did not do the work to keep me in the story. There were also lots of issues with the director. It seems the editor just did not have the shots needed to bring this story together on the screen.

I very much like the charters and the plot, but small things kept getting in the way of enjoying those aspects. The exterior shots of the submarine were horrible. With the amount of bubble coming off the model or CGI that anyone could have been following the boat. Then there where scenes on the boat where it felt so staged. Why would you send a sonar operator to operate the torpedo tubes? Where is the security.

I did enjoy watching it, but really wanted to like it more.

Death on the Nile (2022)

I was sure that Poirot was in Styles during The Great War.

[2/10 · 15 May 2022]

If you want to write your own story I have no problem, but to use someone else's story and make ridiculous changes is horible.

I quote for Agatha Christie's first book "The Mysterious Affair at Styles".

Yes, my friend, she had kindly extended hospitality to seven of my countrypeople who, alas, are refugees from their native land. We Belgians will always remember her with gratitude."

One Shot (III) (2021)

Like a fine dance.

[8/10 · 3 April 2022]

If you look at this movie as a finely choreographed dance it is amazingly good. Certainly the acting and script could be better, but that is not what this movie is about.

Jarhead 3: The Siege (2016 Video)

It started so well

[6/10 · 17 November 2021]

It could have been so good, but then it descended into banality.

I was so happy at the first 1/3 of this movie and then it just feel apart.

To have an interesting look at Marines stationed at a small embassy could have been such a fabulous story, but no we can't have that, this must become just another banal action movie.

I must say that I did like that part that the girl spook played, but most of the action was just a yawn.

For All Mankind (2019– )

The Engineering could have been better.

[8/10 · 16 November 2021]

I wish that they had tried a little harder to get some of the Engineering correct.

Having watch Gemini and Apollo missions on TV as a child may have made this more fun for me than most, as I good get some the history jokes.

Science-wise there are quite a few cringe scenes technically. But there where a few that are quite good as well. The lack of sound on the moon was something most movies can't bring themselves to do. There are also no lights in the helmets. Who knew that was even possible. Some of the science was very lazy however, but I don't think it really hurt the story. Not too many impossible things happen.

Fun to watch and makes you, or at least me, think about what might have happened.

ZeroZeroZero (2019–2020)

Amazingly good.

[9/10 · 2 November 2021]

This is a really great mini series.

I watch this with Dutch subtitles (and I don't speak Dutch) and still loved it. There was no bad parts, i did not cringe even once. It was all just amazingly sardonic,

There is just nothing that goes wrong in the plot or the acting. The grayness is amazing of everything and everyone is fabulous.

A 9.4 from me.

Kate (I) (2021)

A little pearl in a sea of trash.

[8/10 · 12 September 2021]

This movie has subtlety and that is what makes better than most action movies coming out these days.

Yes this movies "steals" from some other movies, such as DOA, La Femme Nikita, The Professional, Zatoichi and Black Rain. I must say I completely miss the comparison to "John Wick", and "Atomic Blond".

The fight scenes are mostly prefect (at least in the "Zatoichi" sense), well choreographed and not so long as to be come boring (well except for one).

What I really like about this movies is that you can't just point to the characters and state if they are good or bad (well they are all killers, but I'll over look that.)

One of the more enjoyable action movies of the several years.

Shooter (2016–2018)

Pretty good show for being written by a 12 year old.

[7/10 · 18 April 2021]

The acting and action are pretty good, but my god the writing is so bad. I guess Barnum was right.

Triple 9 (2016)

Very strange to me.

[6/10 · 26 March 2021]

This seems to be just a standard shoot-em-up movie. Yet it is star studded.

I don't know where they got the money, but it likely makes the movie better.

If only I could figure out why this movie was made.

Anyway certainly worth watching.

Berlin Station: The Green Dacha (2019) Season 3, Episode 8

Daniel Miller is a cry baby little mama's boy.

[2/10 · 11 November 2019]

Are there no writers left in the world. Are we really suppose to believe that Mr. Miller, a great spy, would not be able to control himself long enough to get himself and his friend, Hector DeJean, but instead finds it necessary to pull pull a gun on his mother's killer while his friend is bleeding and the bad guys might show up any minute.

It also bothers me that the police never show up, but that at least has some production value. Having writers that don't understand their charters and actors that either don't know or don't care about the parts they are playing just makes this episode feel silly.

As a travel log these shows are fine but don't invest anything in the characters because the production company certainly hasen't.

Hunter Killer (2018)

A very nice ending, but so badly done.

[6/10 · 1 November 2018]

I really liked the positive outlook of the end of the movie and the fact that it was not done in the normal in you face way of these things. But....

There are so many plot holes. I mean it might be OK if you have never any other movie with submarines or special forces or Russians or the US Government. You also have to have not seen "space balls".

What has happened to the writers. Has Hollywood just decided that they are and unneeded expense?

The movie is a nice idea, but so badly executed.

The Girl in the Spider's Web (2018)

The story is just so, so, oh so very predictable!

[5/10 · 1 November 2018]

I was a bit surprised when the name of the English translator rolled in the credits, as it really seems no one involved in this movie read any of the books. They really only needed and used the name recognition of the characters.

The Acting is quite good. If fact almost everything in this movie is above par compared with most Hollywood shoot-em-ups. But the story, if you can really call it a story, is just so banal. We are told the good guys are good and the bad guys are bad and then we have the plot twist. Yawn.

Condor (2018–2020)

If it wasn't 'based' on "days of the Condor" it might be good.

[5/10 · 9 August 2018]

I have marked it down about 4 starts for naming this 'Condor'.

Flight (I) (2012)

An extremely well make an acted movie, but...

[6/10 · 25 November 2012]

While this is a extremely well make movie, and I did not see one mistake in the flying scenes (as a private pilot, an ATP may have a different opinion). My problems are just with the plot. While some may find this plot compelling, I just found it sad. Almost the whole movie is sad and the ending was not uplifting enough for me.

This movie is about a single man, where it seems to me that it could have covered much larger topics. And while the flying scenes were very well done, in the second half the movie the legal scenes seem to me be very weak and full of holes, and this seems to take away from the climax of the film.

Knowing (2009)

The beginning middle and end all belong in different movies.

[5/10 · 5 April 2009]

The beginning of this movie is quite good. It would make a great movie. This movie would be about a man finding out that life is predetermined and not just the result of random events. He and his father a pastor are reunited and we can look into how this knowledge would effect our outlook on like.

The middle of this movie would also make a decent movie. Even if it is one that has been made quite a few times. Man finds out about events that are going to happen in the future and tries to stop them with some level of success or failure. Lots of special effects and action if nothing else.

The end of this movie could also be part of a good or even great movie. The end of the world is near and aliens come to save some of the children. Man discovers this and tries to "save" the children from the aliens until he discovers that the aliens are the good guys.

The problem is that that these three different scenarios were all crammed into the same single movie.

In the end this movie is reduced to 3 important scenes: 1) aliens kidnap the children 2) land them on a new planet and 3) the earth is destroyed but mankind lives on.

On a aside this movie seemed to be anti-green. Nick Cage lives in a huge house and drives a huge truck. Even the aliens drive a gas guzzler. There is also a fatalistic feeling to the movie. As in "yes global warming might destroy mankind, but can we do anything to stop it, and maybe even aliens will come and save us". At least looking at the movie in this light gives it a motive to be so bad, but likely there were just too many cooks and the large cars where just what the car companies where flogging at the time, and the house was big so it would be scarier.

The Four Feathers (2002)

Did they read the book?

[2/10 · 5 March 2005]

If you want to make a movie about a novel, I think you should understand the novel. The writers of this screenplay did not understand the novel.

The first problem with "The Four Feathers" is that Harry (Heath Ledger) IS a coward. Had a Britsh officer done what he did he would have been in jail, not just branded a coward by his friends. To make the plot work you have to leave his motivation for resigning his commission vague. You need to believe that Ethne is somewhat unfair when she gives Harry the fourth feather. The motivation for Harry quiting the Army is that he wants to be with Ethne, the reason he goes to Africa is because he has lost Ethne and must win her back. In this movie Ethne give him the feather because of what Harry's cowardice will do to her social life, not because she thinks him a coward.

I really could not figure out what the writer was thinking of when he wrote the scenes in Africa. We need to see that Harry would have been a good officer had he stayed in the Army. That he is smart and capable. In this movie Harry is a dumb ass that should have died in the desert.

I did think that the Prison scenes where rather good. This is one place where they seem to have read the book.

As for the love triangle between Ethne, Jack and Harry. This has a vital role in the plot. We see that Jack is not brave enough to tell Ethne about Harry, because he is afraid of being alone.

Here is the main point (the moral) of the Novel. Not everyone that does not goto war is a coward and not that does is brave.

This Is Wonderland (2004–2006)

Best show on my TV.

[10/10 · 5 March 2005]

This show is weird, hilarious, and poignant. The production quality is very good, the acting is great, and the characters are brilliant. Even the sound is good, which is more than I can say for most US TV shows of late. I understand that the producers ended up in the Old Toronto City Hall one day and found it so odd they had to make it into a TV show.

As an American I am not used to the Canadian Justice system, but this just makes it all the more interesting. There is a court that would be like the US night court and then three more: bail court, plea court and crazy people court. Oh yes and once in a while we get to see trail court as well. While the judges wear red robes, like in Rumple of the Bailey, there are no powdered wigs.

If you can get CBC -- watch this show. If you can't get CBC -- move.

Les Misérables (1998)

Les Miserable Movie

[3/10 · 17 November 2000]

The casting for this movie is great. I could not think of any actor that is better for the Valjean part than Liam Neeson, nor can I think of better actors for the parts of Fantine or Javert. It is hard for me to believe that with this cast you could end up with such a miserable film.

I found the movie rather hard to follow. It seemed that a lot of it must have ended up on the cutting room floor. But that was not the major problem. The major problem was that there was no understanding of Valjean or Javert. They show Javert more interested in catching Valjean than doing his job. To Javert rules are everything. But then the end is just amazing. They have Javert commit suicide in front of Valjean and show Valjean walk away smiling. This completely misses the point of the book. Valjean would have jumped in after him, it is the conflict between Valjean's goodness and Javert's rules that cause Javert to end his life.

Maybe they found the book too long, and wrote the screen play from Cliff Notes. If you have read the book, stay away from this movie.

Heat (1995)

Chase at the end makes it a looser.

[5/10 · 4 November 2000]

While I found the first 2 hours and 45 minutes of this film great. The last 15 minutes where the worst. I am not sure if some suit got a hold of the film or if the writer could just not figure out how to end it. Whatever the reason, the end was so weak that it destroyed what should have been a great movie.

I sometime wonder: if Hollywood made a movie of "Cyrano de Bergerac" would Cyrano end up with the Roxanne. Oh that's right they did and he does. But that is a different movie.

Clay Pigeons (1998)

A very Dark light comedy

[9/10 · 18 September 2000]

This is a very funny movie, except that lots of people die, but didn't you ever laugh when a friend hurt them selves. I'm can't really put my finger on why, but I really enjoy this movie. I think it was even better the second time than the first, and I am sure I will see it many more times. It has good acting, dark humor, some light humor, very interesting charaters and some very good acting. Anyway see it, you'll like it.

The Brother from Another Planet (1984)

The second best Science Fiction movie ever.

[10/10 · 13 June 2000]

The only Science fiction movie that is better than this is ``The Day the Earth Stood Still''. This is just a great movie. This is a thinking mans movie. If you want Star Wars this is not for you. As with all the best Science Fiction this is a movie about human kind in the present and not alien life-forms in some distant future.

Air Force One (1997)

Why do they make these, why do people watch them.

[1/10 · 16 May 2000]

If you saw "Airport '77", "Passenger 57", and "The Peacemaker" then you have seen this movie. The good guys are good and the bad guys are bad. And surprise surprise good wins. Oh, sorry I gave away the ending.

Friends (1971)

This is a great coming of age movie.

[10/10 · 15 February 1999]

Beautiful coming of age romance about an English boy and French girl who run off, and grow up.

I saw this movie as a teenager and loved it. I saw it again this year and loved again.