thesuf Reviews

Arnold (2023)

An enjoyable puff piece

[8/10 · 11 June 2023]

This was a very heart warming biographical docuseries on Arnold Schwarzenegger. Beautifully made, the series is spilt up into three episodes covering Arnold's life as an athlete, as an actor and finally as a politician.

As entertaining and as sentimental as this series was, I feel the series makers could have dwelled deeper into certain areas of Arnold's life. For sure they could've covered his seemingly troubled relationship with his father and brother a bit deeper. I feel they basically glanced over this. I mean it was clear there were some unresolved issues with his dad, especially when you consider that at some point early in his life Arnold actually wondered if his dad wasn't his "real dad" and was perhaps an American soldier, thus explaining to himself his drive to move there. And they never actually tell us if Arnold did or didn't attend his father's funeral: if you believed what he said in Pumping Iron, he basically refused to go and years later you find out that in that movie he was play acting most of the time.

The series makers also could've touched on his relationship with his mother post death of his father and brother. Arnold just cuts himself off from his past raises a lot of question which could've been explored more in the series: his relationship with his mother and immediate family could've been spread out in an entire episode on its own.

More could've been discussed about the allegations he faced during his campaign for governor of California. I suspect the series makers wanted to make a positive series on Arnold considering it's a Netflix show and that they've signed him on for another show, possibly more projects in the pipeline.

Ultimately, this series was a puff piece. No other way to describe it. It is well made, enjoyable and enlightening. Very heart felt at times, but enjoyable. And I did walk away from this series admiring Arnold more, I have to say. Love him or hate him, I highly recommend watching this to gain a different and intimate perspective on the man.

Fugitive: The Curious Case of Carlos Ghosn (2022)

Interesting but lacking

[6/10 · 27 October 2022]

This is a very interesting documentary. Sadly lacks in details on his life before Nissan, and the corporate wrongdoings that eventually brought him down. Probably the filmmakers were restricted legally with what they could present in this film, which is understandable (presumed innocent until proven guilty). It does make for good viewing though. I would've like to hear more about the corporate culture that he had created which likely led to a lot of corruption internally within the company, or even allowed Carlos Ghosn to abuse his position in both Nissan and Renault. Obviously he made a lot of enemies during his time leading both companies and it would've been interesting to explore who they were and how he crossed them as well.

Gladbeck: The Hostage Crisis (2022)

Infuriating

[3/10 · 11 June 2022]

The hostage takers basically get away with killing two teenagers and for what looks like absolutely nothing.

Well made documentary but subject matter just boils the blood. As someone else here had already commented, you end up hating yourself for watching this documentary. I would avoid this one.

Koran by Heart (2011)

Heartfelt and informative

[10/10 · 24 April 2021]

This is a very interesting, heartwarming and soulful documentary. Produced by HBO Documentary Films and shot mostly in Egypt just prior to the Arab Spring in 2011, this documentary revolves around the Quran memorization competition, held there every year, where children from around the world are invited compete in their Quran recitation abilities.

The documentary follows three specific children competing to win first prize in that competition. The children come from various backgrounds: two boys from Senegal and Tajikistan, and a little girl from Maldives. The filmmakers highlight these children's normal daily lives, their struggles in their home countries and the challenges they face in the competition.

Beautifully made, this documentary is an eye opener to the hardships people in different parts of the word face; an interesting peek into the Middle East's most recent political past; but also, and most importantly, this documentary serves as an exposure and as a nice introduction to the Quran for non-Muslims. I highly recommend.

Servant (2019–2023)

No point in continuing

[4/10 · 5 February 2021]

Season 2 of Servant on Apple TV+ is just God awful. It stops making sense around the third episode. You lose all sympathy for any of the characters. Storyline becomes problematical and unrealistic. I felt the premise was going to be hard maintaining and here we are. A game of cat and mouse between Dorothy and Leanne. You wonder why Sean even bothers putting up with any of it.

The Haunting of Bly Manor (2020)

Imperfect and not at all splendid

[1/10 · 13 October 2020]

As most people here have already mentioned, this is more of a love story than a horror or ghost story. The series starts off well. Slows down a bit around the third episode. Pace then picks up at the midway point only to slow down again and never to recover.

In terms of acting, story-wise and the scare factor this series is no where near as good as the Hill House series. Few chilly moments in the series but not nearly enough. False advertising if you ask me. The acting was, for the most part, painful. The British accents from the non-British actors came off as forced and strained. I found myself really not sympathising with most of the characters. I hate to say this but the children were very annoying. And finally, the storyline really didn't make much sense to me. Despite all this I patiently watched till the very end to see if there'd be a meaningful ending that makes. Sadly very disappointing.

Transformers: War for Cybertron Trilogy (2020–2021)

Good, but a missed opportunity

[5/10 · 31 July 2020]

Firstly, allow me to start by saying that I've never played the video game "Transformers: War for Cybertron" on which this show is based on. So I went into this show with very little expectations and an open mind: having just seen the trailers but knowing upfront that none of the original series' voice over actors would be in this. Having just finished the 6 episodes of part 1 of the trilogy (Seige), I have to say I am a bit disappointed.

The animation is awesome. The storyline and action however were slow. The action does pick up briefly here and there throughout the episodes, but the show remains mostly dull in between. Story wise things don't get really interesting till the end: 2nd half of episode 6.

The music isn't very inspiring but works well with the show's pace. In terms of character development, we all recognize the characters visually but that's as far as it goes. I like the new take on Bumblebee. Optimus Prime comes off as stiff in this show and really nothing like previous incarnations. Putting in a voice over actor trying to pull off a Peter Cullen impersonation is really cringeworthy. In fact most of the choices for voice actors in the show don't work. Can't say I blame the voice actors by the way. Bad call on the production team. For example, Cullen was actually in the video game and considering Prime is a fan favorite, putting in someone else to do Cullen's Prime was a bad gamble in my opinion. One small thing I didn't like was how they introduced Arcee. It's like, one minute she's not in the show, and then all of sudden there she is, no introductions or anything, just in the show.

Overall, it was hard following the show's story as there was far too much (boring) dialogue for an animated show. I feel this show was made specifically for the video game's fans which is disappointing because this seems to have been a very big opportunity to re-engage fans of the franchise and the many Transformers shows. It's probably not a good idea to compare but both Transformers Prime and Beast Wars did so much more in little time to energize, please and reconnect the franchise with the fans. This was a missed opportunity at best. Perhaps it's too early to rubbish this series: episode 6 towards the end was actually fun to watch. Me personally, I intend to watch this series to the very end out of curiosity, though I doubt I will change my rating.

Jeffrey Epstein: Filthy Rich (2020)

Powerful documentary but could've been more

[6/10 · 29 May 2020]

I've just finished watching all 4 episodes of this docuseries. Just like the 'Leaving Neverland' and the 'Harvey Weinstein' documentaries, I knew going into this more or less what went on in these stories. However, I didn't count on the 'too much information to process' aspect. And it was in fact hard processing all this.

I should have expected that the survivors were going to share details of what went on. Absolutely brave of them to go through all this on camera. One can't help but shed a tear and sympathize with them. For me personally it was upsetting at times listening to their stories. Sadly, I feel that all this is just the tip of the iceberg and probably worse thing most likely took place over the years.

Overall, I am a bit disappointed with the series. I was expecting more in terms of an expose on JE and the power dynamics or scandals in the political sphere. If anyone has been following the story, beginning to end, I don't recommend watching this. Apart from background stories on the survivor's and how they met then worked for JE, there's very little new to the overall picture in this docuseries. Again the details were pretty disturbing, for me anyway.

Having said that, this is a story that absolutely needs to be told. With Netflix backing it you can bet that major heads are going to roll in the coming days, weeks or months from the documentary being viewed so widely. And that's a good thing.

Conclusion? Well there are conspiracy theories out there. JE is dead. There was a body. There were pictures. In my opinion they whisked the body away because they want the current narrative to be the one and only narrative: that he took his life and wasn't murdered. He had a lot on a lot of people, and I wish they explored that aspect and his death a bit more in this series. Ultimately, I believe that he was got rid of.

Superman: Red Son (2020 Video)

Enjoyable but flawed

[6/10 · 20 April 2020]

Superman Red Son is a DC animated feature based on Mark Millar's comic books series of the same name. To be perfectly honest I haven't read the comics yet and so I am reviewing this movie purely on its own merit, although I know for a fact that a lot of creative liberties were taken with this movie in moving away from the comics' original story line.

I had a hard time rating this one but eventually gave it a 6 out of 10 and even then it felt forced. I will say, however, that overall this was movie was enjoyable. Disappointing at the same time but enjoyable.

In terms of positives, I am extremely happy to see Bruce Timm back working on DC animated features. I really do hope this isn't just a one-off and he will be working on other DC projects over again and again. You're always guaranteed a level of quality with any given DC animated movie with him linked in somehow, and Red Son is certainly no exception. Great animation, great designs and great voice acting by most of the cast. Jason Issac especially was surprisingly spot on with his performance. I personally thought he'd too deep and regal a voice for Superman but he absolutely proved me wrong. This is despite the fact that his Russian accent wasn't really very Russian sounding, call me picky. Also the Batman opposing Superman angle was very nicely executed in the movie and created some interesting tensions between main the characters.

Where the movie becomes problematic: gender politics aside (and there are plenty of points I can raise here but won't), I think it's always problematic when writers tie in comics storylines to actual historical events or, as in this case, actual historical personalities. This probably comes directly from the comic books' storyline, so really you can't blame the movie makers, but Superman killing off Stalin comes off as a bit weird if not disrespectful to history. My biggest issue personally was seeing Superman turn into a dictator and then actually a momentary villain. I appreciate the alternative reality premise of the whole movie, but the logic wasn't very convincing. Also, Superman throwing an unprovoked punch at Wonder Woman came off as childish and really didn't make sense in the context of the movie. Lex Luthor marrying Lois Lane was probably not a good idea, although again I think this stems from the comic book's storyline. The whole Lex - Lois relationship comes off as too smug and frankly too irritating. Leaving Superman as single with no love interest didn't work for me and I think a lot of hard-core fans would take issue with this as well. I generally love Diedrich Bader in everything he's ever done. His Luthor was far too suave for my liking.

All in all, this was an interesting take on Superman. Alternate reality in the truest sense, packing in as much of the familiar Superman lore we all know and love, with added twists here and there most of which were very welcome. However, as enjoyable as this was, it had its down moments. As a result I really do not recommend getting the movie on DVD or BluRay, there's very little in terms of value-added material on there to justify the costs. You're better off renting it on whichever platform you're using. It's only worth watching once or twice.

Star Trek: Picard: Nepenthe (2020) Season 1, Episode 7

Giving the show one more chance

[7/10 · 6 March 2020]

I was so close to giving up on this series and walking away. But then this episode aired. Such a sweet mini reunion of an episode. Finally some of that familiar family Star Trek feeling starting to pop up in the show. I think I might just hang on for a few more episodes.

Star Trek: Picard (2020–2023)

Star Trek post MeToo

[1/10 · 29 February 2020]

Five episodes in and all I can say is that this series is just awful. Stiff, daytime soap opera like acting; sloppy writing; very uninteresting storylines; far too many new characters to relate back to the Next Generation series, which was the whole selling point; and an un-Star Trek like musical score. Add on top of that the not so subtle gender politics. Overall the feel of the series is wrong. I mean talk about a missed opportunity. This is not the Star Trek we all know and love.

Star Trek: Picard: Maps and Legends (2020) Season 1, Episode 2

They've Discovery-ed Picard

[4/10 · 8 February 2020]

Two episodes in and I'm thoroughly disappointed. Sloppy writing which feels rushed, bad acting, now poop jokes and open swearing. They risk ruining the ST Next Generation's legacy, they must know this. Here's to better story telling in the coming episodes. I doubt I'd be personally willing to hang on for much longer.

Titans: Nightwing (2019) Season 2, Episode 13

Sloppy writing

[1/10 · 12 January 2020]

Overall I am disappointed with this show. It had Such potential. Familiar storylines and loveable characters. Second season started off pretty much as expected: slow and in the beginning but it gradually got better towards the middle episodes specifically with the introduction of Conner. But it remained predictable to the very end with anti-climactic season finale. I feel the Raven, Dove and Hawk storylines were weak and could've wrecked the show. The 'relationship interactions' were cringeworthy. In my opinion Iain Glen as Batman was a bad casting decision. It's like they had casted an archetypal Bond villain for the role: he had the vocal tone for the character but lacked in every other department, physically and otherwise. I kept expecting him mutter "my khaleesi". Like everyone else I'm surprised with the weak demise of Wonder Girl. It made no sense how she could duke it out with Superboy toe to toe but then die from electrocution. I just hope they manage to make the show more engaging in the coming seasons and more appealing to the fans.

The Irishman (2019)

Scorsese delivers

[7/10 · 10 January 2020]

Ask and you shall receive. And we did receive. A star studded, Martin Scorsese mob movie.

This was a great movie. It starts slow: De Niro's acting, and overall appearance, were stiff frankly. The movie picks up pace just after the mid-point. Where the actors' appearances are concerned, it was hard to tell the characters' ages in this piece, film makers having digitally altered the actors' appearances to make them look younger or older according to the movie scenes' timeframe. For when the characters were supposed to look younger, I found this unnatural and outright distracting, especially with De Niro's character. The illusion is lost somehow and in essence there's only so much make-up and digital enhancing can do for an actor.

Naturally actors will move as smoothly as their bodies allow them. Ultimately the actors' ages were telling in this movie. There was one scene where De Niro's character was giving a beating to another character but the way he moved around in that scene really showed a much older guy than the character's age, to a point where it looked like the other actor taking the beating was actually helping De Niro with the action. You can't help but cringe watching that specific scene.

Acting wise worth mentioning both Al Pacino's and Joe Pesci's performances were stellar and totally made up for the early stiff start of the movie. For me Al Pacino has not lost a single drop of energy with age. Ray Romano's and Stephen Graham's performances were the surprising show stealer in my opinion.

This is really a good movie, worth spending the 3 hours to watch in its entirety. Some are calling this a masterpiece. Frankly I've seen far better Scorsese movies. It's not the classic Scorsese movie that Taxi Driver or Goodfellas are, and it may not be historically accurate, but it's an entertaining, thought provoking, and star-studded movie.

All Is True (2018)

They had me in tears

[10/10 · 13 September 2019]

I wasn't aware of this movie until I saw Kenneth Branagh's name mentioned browsing through the available movies on iTunes. I immediately clicked to watch and in all honesty no regrets. This was such a beautifully, moving movie. The cinematography was amazing. Patrick Doyle's score was beyond words and made every scene more dramatic. Great performances by Judi Dench and Ian McKellen. Surprise of surprises: the screenplay was written by Ben Elton, who is better known for his comedy writing for shows such as The Young Ones and Blackadder. He has come a long way with this. This movie was such a labor of love. The passion for Shakespeare's life and works radiates off the screen. They may have taken some liberties in the historical accuracy department but this is such a well-made movie one can forgive the shortcomings. And I am not ashamed to say that the ending had moved me to tears. Well worth the viewing.

The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance (2019)

All Gelflings look alike

[10/10 · 8 September 2019]

Being a huge fan of the movie when it came out back in 1982, 40 years (or should I say trine?) later, and it seems that I have been waiting an eternity for this show to come out.

I had heard about plans to create this series a few years back but I was never really clear on if it was going to be a remake or a prequel. So I was excited to see this finally listed on Netflix a couple of weeks back. I started watching in awe. It was difficult to maintain focus in the beginning to be frank. After all the show is entirely made up of puppets; not a human in sight. You can't take the show seriously as a 40+ year old knowing this: every now and again my mind would snap back to reality and I'd think "why am I watching the Thunderbirds?". Harder still to tell the Gelfling characters apart from each other. They seemed to be all the same. Three episodes into the show however, I was hooked.

Great story telling. High production values. Every scene, every detail is nothing short of a labor of love. It was only after watching all 10 episodes followed by the 'making of' documentary that I had realized: this is in fact a prequel to the movie. And it makes total sense. In so many ways it's more than just a prequel. It is a homage to the original movie. The original Dark Crystal brought back to life. A universe recreated, expanded upon and remaining all so very faithful to the movie.

Such a beautifully made series. What an unbelievable achievement for the producers to bring back puppetry as still a viable, alive and kicking story telling medium. Jim Henson would be proud. What a sense of escape this show brings, what a sense of mystery and awe you get when you fully immerse yourself in this world. What joy at the depth of the characters.

This show is really for the fans of the movie but even the new generation of daydreamers will enjoy. I watched a few episodes with my 8 year old nephew. I was expecting him to give me dirty looks but he instantly fell in love. I highly recommend and sincerely hope the producers continue to develop more episodes, bringing the show full circle.

The Edge of Democracy (2019)

Democracy's demise

[7/10 · 14 August 2019]

This is a such a well made documentary on Brazil's politics. Being non-Brazlian myself, I went into this documentary knowing literally nothing about Brazil's modern political history, aside from hearing the names of Lula and Dilma mentioned in the news occasionally. So this was a very enlightening film for me. My only criticisms are the length of the film, but with the material the makers were running with I seriously doubt they could've shortened it down at all. Also the narrator's hypnotic tone was making it hard to keep focus. All in all, I highly recommend this film not only as an educational experience but also for everyone to realize that we all live in an age where political games are being played against voting publics across the globe, and sadly this is not confined to specific countries anymore. Wishing the people there much prosperity in the years to come.

The Family (2019)

Slow and could've been better

[4/10 · 10 August 2019]

Interesting subject matter on how evangelicals are majorly influencing US and world politics however I feel the makers should've released this as a feature length documentary. As a docuseries it was way too long and too slow. Most of the material in the series did not really add any value from a learning perspective in my opinion and could have been cut out completely. The show starts to pick up pace midway through the second, right to the end of the third episodes but then slows down again right to the very end. I feel the show didn't uncover really juicy or politically shocking information considering it's trying to come off as a 'secret society' / 'world conspiracy' docuseries, which is disappointing. Also the case the makers were trying to make where they were likening or connecting The Family's activities with that of Nazis failed miserably in my opinion. As a Alex Gibney produced documentary I had high expectations but sadly it did not do it for me.

The Predator (2018)

Not the reboot we were expecting

[1/10 · 15 June 2019]

I remember reading somewhere ages ago that this movie would be a reboot of the franchise and not in line with previous storylines. Well, it's not. It's another sequel and a very bad one at that. Don't know why Thomas Jane is in this but he is. As a nod to the fans Jake Busey does a cameo (Gary Busey was in Predator 2). Some scenes were meant to be funny but come off as annoying. More violent deaths than the other Predator movies and unnecessarily so. Weak storyline and cheesy acting. Frankly so bad it makes the AvP movies look good. I'd avoid this unless you have seriously nothing better to do or if you are on a very long flight.

Power of Grayskull: The Definitive History of He-Man and the Masters of the Universe (2017)

Finally and well worth the wait

[8/10 · 6 August 2018]

If you're a fan of the 80's and of toys in general this is a must watch documentary. Just over 90 minutes long this documentary goes through the history of He-Man and the Masters of the Universe franchise, from the conception of a new and popular toy line for MATTEL to worldwide phenomenon, spanning the 80's and to modern times. Fans of He-Man and Masters of the Universe will enjoy the tidbits and behind the scenes stories behind the toy line and franchise. I would say that in terms of how the franchise came to be this documentary could also be a learning experience for business students.

A very interesting documentary with only a few shortcomings in my opinion. I felt the documentary spent too much time on the 1987 movie although I will say the interviews with both Dolph Lundgren and Frank Langella were absolute gems. Touched upon briefly there wasn't enough material, unfortunately, on why the franchise collapsed the way it did. Although a lot of that was already covered in the Netflix Toys That Made Us docu-series, it would have been nice to get a different perspective in this movie as well. Finally, I feel there was not enough focus on the 2000 reboot, no mention of any new developments within the franchise itself or where it could go in the future. I would have expected that personally.

All in all, this documentary was absolutely worth the wait. Hats off to the team for finally coming through with a great nostalgic and learning experience.