mqdan Reviews

Goliath: Hadleyville (2021) Season 4, Episode 1

S 4 a old departure; tragic plot and bad writing doom good actors

[2/10 · 10 December 2021]

This series was excellent for 3 years until this seasons rabbit hole chasing the Hollywood opioid narrative into the sewer.

The actors deliver all the ridiculous rhetoric with enthusiasm but all to no avail. This year was a horrible end to a good series.

Dark Disciple (2016)

Really amateur

[4/10 · 15 August 2021]

Redundant fill shots, bad acting, simple dialogue and no tension of any sort.

Fargo: Welcome to the Alternate Economy (2020) Season 4, Episode 1

Lead gangsters don't have "it", mediocre at best

[2/10 · 11 November 2020]

Have only seen season 4 and not much to see here. Rock and Schwartzman don't have the gravitas to pull off a mobster head man. Rock simply can't act and is unconvincing. The rest of the cast with a few exceptions are plug and chug characters with remarkable social awareness that isn't of that time period.

In Enemy Hands (2004)

Very good acting but story setting is impossible.

[7/10 · 28 October 2019]

So the elephant in the room is that American and German submarines could never have met in WW2 action. The few American submarines in the Atlantic in 1943 would have been off the Tunisian coast in support of Operation Torch. Also submarines dueling at depth while submerged is a 1980's concept not a WW2 concept. Now that said, once you suspend your belief enough to enjoy the story and the acting by Macy and the German actors, you can enjoy the movie. The writing and directing is passable but the 7 score is for the actors.

Criminal: UK: Edgar (2019) Season 1, Episode 1

Good acting but.........

[5/10 · 25 October 2019]

Not very believable but maybe this is what qualifies as "evidence to charge " in the UK legal system. Besides why stonewall for 90%of the interview and then fold like a cheap suit?

The Favourite (2018)

An attempt to diminish powerful women

[3/10 · 6 September 2019]

Several excellent acting performances are hamstrung and wasted by injecting storylines that diminish the powerful women in the story. These three historical power brokers in a Male dominated society don't have to posited as lesbians to succeed. Besides being historically wrong, it adds nothing to the story except an accepted 21st century popular narrative. Also the music score detracts from dramatic tension and flow. Too bad, it could have been great.

Salvador (1986)

A very good fictional movie, based on a true story

[7/10 · 19 January 2014]

Excellent casting, performances and storytelling by Stone. The major difficulty in watching his re-telling of the true story is the looseness with which he interprets the events and uses the creative license to fill in with completely fictional elements. This isn't a bad thing but, as with all Stone movies, he gives them the illusion of 'reality' by interspersing these fictional elements with the same weight as the real elements. Adding the text post-scripts further enhances this dichotomy and blurs the lines between the actual true story and the "true" story he is telling. James Woods does a phenomenal job of portraying a peripheral real life journalist into a main story character as written by Stone and Boyle. This movie is very entertaining, makes you think and should encourage those who are unfamiliar with the events of this time period and area to actually read up on the scholarly accounts of these events.

The Raven (I) (2012)

Could have been wonderful..........

[4/10 · 8 November 2012]

An interesting view of Poe as a crime solver, the society of the day and the intricacies of being a "commercial poet/writer" in the 19th century. The writing and acting is crisp and moves the story along at a good pace involving the viewer deeply. Several surprises are paid off handsomely and the atmosphere of the movie is consistently superb.

The reasons for my low rating are as follows: 1. The culprit is an aspiring, admiring writer not a Navy SEAL but yet is able to use weapons handily and pull off multiple physical maneuvers that would require serious training beyond that of his occupation.Not very plausible. and 2. The ending requires suspension of belief and is inconsistent with the Poe that's been developed along the way. He is a driven passionate man-of-action for the entire film, but then acquiesces to a binary choice handed him by the killer. The Poe developed earlier would have chosen a third course and subdued the killer - providing an opportunity to extract the information via other means. Again an implausible ending for Poe. Required plot rescue is accomplished by the final gunshot.

It could have been great and wasted some good acting, hence the 4